JP2013111774A - Recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce time required for colorimetry.SOLUTION: The recording apparatus includes a recording part to perform recording by applying an ink to a recording medium; an evaporation accelerating means to accelerate evaporation of a solvent of the ink of a pattern recorded by applying the ink to the recording medium by the recording part; a colorimetry part to measure the color of the pattern recorded on the recording medium by the recording part; and a control means to control so that the acceleration of evaporation of the solvent by the evaporation accelerating means and colorimetry by the colorimetry part are alternately performed.

Description

  The present invention relates to a recording apparatus provided with a colorimetric sensor.

  Conventionally, for color calibration, a color patch for calibration is printed before actual printing, and colorimetry is performed by reading it with a sensor.

  An image formed with ink is ideally performed after drying, but natural drying takes time. Therefore, in Cited Document 1, the time is shortened by sending wind to the printed color patch, drying the color patch, and performing colorimetry.

JP 2008-254221 A

  In Patent Document 1, warm air is uniformly applied to the entire printed color patch for drying, and then colorimetry is performed by a colorimeter. It took time to dry the entire color patch before colorimetry, and it took time for the whole colorimetry to be performed.

  An object of the present invention is to shorten the time required for colorimetry.

  In order to achieve the above object, the configuration of the present invention includes a recording unit that performs recording by applying ink to a recording medium, and a solvent for an ink of a pattern that is recorded by applying ink to the recording medium by the recording unit. The evaporation promoting means for promoting evaporation, the color measuring section for measuring the color of the pattern recorded on the recording medium by the recording section, the solvent evaporation promotion by the evaporation promoting means and the color measuring by the color measuring section are alternately performed. And a control unit that controls the recording apparatus.

  According to the present invention, the time required for color measurement can be shortened.

1 is a configuration diagram of a recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The figure showing the positional relationship of a dryer, a colorimeter, and a printed color patch. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating circuit configurations of a recording apparatus and a colorimeter. The flowchart of the operation | movement of colorimetry. The figure for demonstrating the operation | movement of colorimetry. The figure for demonstrating the operation | movement of colorimetry. The figure for demonstrating the operation | movement of colorimetry. The figure for demonstrating the operation | movement of colorimetry. The graph which shows the change of the color difference by the natural drying of the recorded image. The graph which shows the change of the color difference by the ventilation drying of the recorded image. The graph which shows the relationship between elapsed time (natural drying time) and the shortenable time of ventilation drying. The graph which shows the relationship between the amount of ink discharge, and the reduction | decrease of the shortenable time of ventilation drying (it reduces to what%). An example in which a patch string group is divided into a plurality of areas will be described.

  FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 3000 denotes a recording medium wound in a roll shape, and is rotatably supported by the recording apparatus. Reference numeral 3020 denotes a pair of transport rollers that are pulled out from the roll-shaped recording medium 3000 and sandwich and transport the continuous recording medium. A recording head 3010 ejects ink. An ink is applied to the recording medium by a recording head 3010 which is a recording unit, and an image is recorded. The recording head 3010 prints an image based on image data sent from a host computer or the like, or a pattern such as a color patch for color measurement on a recording medium. Reference numeral 3030 denotes a dryer which is an evaporation promoting means for promoting the evaporation of the solvent of the ink of the image formed by the recording head 3010. The dryer 3030 includes a fan and a heater, and warm air is blown out from the nozzle 3031 in the upstream direction of the transport direction.

  The meaning expressed by the word “dry” here does not necessarily mean that the water content or liquid content of the recording medium is 0%, but the water content or liquid content is reduced by evaporating the solvent of the ink. To lower. Therefore, what the dryer 3030 is doing is promoting the evaporation of the liquid from the recording medium.

  Reference numeral 3050 denotes a color measurement unit which is a color measurement unit. The color measurement unit 3050 includes a color measurement sensor 3040 that is guided by the guide shaft 3041 and scans in a direction that intersects the conveyance direction of the continuous recording medium 1010. The color measurement sensor 3040 scans the pattern recorded on the continuous recording medium 1010.

  The color measuring unit 3050 supports the dryer 3030. The color measurement unit 3050 can be moved integrally with the dryer 3030 to a color measurement position that contacts the continuous recording medium 1010 and a retreat position 3051 that is separated from the continuous recording medium. When the recording medium is dried, the color measurement unit 3050 stops at a position between the color measurement position and the retreat position at a position where there is a gap between the color measurement unit 3050 and the continuous recording medium 1010, and the observation device 3030. Blast from.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the positional relationship between the recording apparatus, the dryer, the colorimeter, and the printed color patches. Reference numeral 1000 denotes a recording apparatus including a recording head 3010 and a conveyance roller pair 3020. Reference numeral 1010 denotes a recording medium on which a color patch 1020 is recorded by a recording apparatus. Reference numeral 1040 denotes a drying region in which the drying by the dryer 3030 is most effectively performed. Reference numeral 1041 denotes a color measurement region that is a range in which color measurement can be performed by one scan of the color measurement sensor 3040.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram expressing circuit configurations of the recording apparatus and the colorimeter. Reference numeral 2010 denotes a CPU that controls the recording apparatus and processes data. Reference numeral 2030 denotes a memory for storing programs and data. Reference numeral 2040 denotes a timer. The timer 2040 measures an elapsed time from a certain time point, and in this embodiment, measures an elapsed time from the recording time point. Reference numeral 2020 denotes an ejection counter that counts the ink ejection amount. The time measured by the timer 2040 and the discharge amount counted by the discharge counter are stored in the memory 2030.

  Reference numeral 2070 denotes a drying time control unit. The drying time by the dryer can be controlled. Reference numeral 3052 denotes a motor that moves the color measurement unit 3050.

  Next, the color measurement operation will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

  First, in step S <b> 1, a patch row for color measurement is printed by the recording head 3010. As shown in FIG. 2, the recording medium is conveyed in the conveying direction indicated by arrow A while printing the patch rows 1021, 1022, and 1023 arranged in the width direction of the recording medium 1010. When the recording of the predetermined patch train group 1020 is completed, the process proceeds to step S2 and forward feed is performed. As shown in FIG. 5, when the entire patch row group 1020 is conveyed until it is located downstream of the drying region 1040, the process proceeds to step S3 and backfeed is performed.

  In step S3, the recording medium is conveyed in the upstream direction indicated by the arrow B in FIG. 6 by the conveying roller pair 3020, and a plurality of patch arrays including the patch array 1030 to be measured next as shown in FIG. Moving. The drying area 1040 has a size that allows a plurality of patch rows to be dried simultaneously.

  In step S4, the ventilation drying time is calculated according to the procedure described later.

  In step S5, the motor 3052 is driven to move the color measurement unit 3050 to the drying position. Then, warm air is blown from the dryer 3030.

  When the calculated blow drying time is blown, the blow is stopped, the process proceeds to step S6, the recording medium is further conveyed upstream, and the patch row 1030 to be measured next is moved to the color measurement region 1041, as shown in FIG. To do. Next, in step S <b> 7, the motor 3052 is driven to lower the color measurement unit 3050 to a color measurement position in contact with the recording medium 1010. Further, the colorimetric sensor 3040 is scanned along the recording medium 1010 to read the patch row.

  In step S8, it is determined whether or not all the colorimetry of the plurality of patch rows that have been dried has been completed. If a patch row that has not been measured remains, the process returns to step S6, and the patch rows 1030 and 1029 are sequentially measured as shown in FIG. Since the recording medium cannot be transported when the color measuring unit 3050 is in the color measuring position, the motor 3052 is driven to move the color measuring unit 3050 to the drying position when transporting the recording medium. At the time of color measurement, the color measurement unit 3050 is moved to the color measurement position.

  If all the colorimetric measurements for the dried patch train have been completed in step S8, it is determined in step S9 whether the colorimetry for all the recorded patch trains has been completed. Then, it returns to step S3 and repeats drying and colorimetry.

  As described above, the evaporation promotion of the recorded pattern is performed for each divided area, and the control is performed so that the color measurement of the area where the evaporation promotion is completed is performed every time the evaporation promotion of one area is completed. That is, evaporation promotion and colorimetry are performed alternately.

  In step S9, when the color measurement of the last patch row 1021 is completed and there is no patch row to be measured next, the motor 3052 is driven to raise the color measurement unit 3050 to the retracted position and perform the color measurement operation. finish.

  Next, the color change of the image of the recording medium recorded with ink will be described. FIG. 9 is a graph showing a change in color difference of an image with respect to time when the printed matter is naturally dried. The change becomes smaller with time and the color becomes stable. The more stable the color, the higher the degree of drying.

  FIG. 10 is a graph showing the change in the color difference of the image when the printed matter is similarly dried by blowing with a dryer. As in FIG. 9, it approaches a stable value as time passes, but rapidly approaches the stable value in the beginning, but changes gradually and gradually decreases at a certain time. Almost no change from a certain value. Compared to natural drying, the time required for the color to stabilize is shortened in the air drying. It can be seen that the time required to stabilize the ink has been shortened.

  Table 1 shows the drying time required for the ink to become stable when it is blown and dried by the dryer 3030 of this embodiment for each type of recording medium.

  In Table 1, for example, for plain paper, immediately after the image is formed by the recording head 3010, if air is continuously blown on the image for 75 seconds, the ink of the image is stabilized, and the color measurement result is stabilized.

  However, as described above, the recording apparatus according to the present embodiment does not perform air drying immediately after image formation, but sequentially performs the color side of the patch array while repeating conveyance, drying, and color measurement. Depending on the position of the patch row, natural drying is performed to some extent before air drying. Accordingly, it is possible to shorten the time of air drying in the region to be air dried by the amount of natural drying.

  FIG. 11 is a graph showing the relationship between the elapsed time from the recording time (natural drying time) and the shortenable time for air drying. If the elapsed time after recording for each recorded image is counted by a timer and the time for air drying is shortened according to the elapsed time using this graph, the colorimetric throughput is improved.

  Some images have a large ink discharge amount. As for the portion where the ink discharge amount is large, the degree of drying is reduced even if it is naturally dried for the same time. Therefore, the shortenable time in FIG. 11 decreases as the discharge amount increases. Conversely, it is necessary to increase the air drying time as the ink discharge amount increases. FIG. 12 is a graph showing the relationship between the amount of ink discharged and the reduction (to what percentage) the reduction in the time that can be shortened by blow drying.

  Next, a procedure for determining the drying time for each region of the patch array group based on these characteristics will be described. As shown in FIG. 13, the patch row group 1020 is divided into, for example, five regions 1020a, 1020b, 1020c, 1020d, and 1020e. The first area 1020a includes patch rows 1021, 1022, and 1023. A timer 2040 counts the elapsed time after the recording of each area is completed. Further, the discharge amount of the portion having the highest density and the largest ink discharge amount in the image of each region is stored in the memory.

The drying time D of each area to be blown and dried can be obtained by the following equation.
D = B−T × I
D: Drying time for each area B: Basic drying time for each type of recording medium T: Time for shortening the drying time according to the elapsed time from the recording time I: Decreasing factor for the time for shortening the drying time according to the ink ejection amount It is.

  For the basic drying time B, the table shown in Table 1 is stored in advance in the memory. The air drying shortenable time T is stored in advance in a memory by making the graph of FIG. 11 into a table. The reduction coefficient I is also stored in advance in the form of a table of the graph of FIG.

  In step S4 of FIG. 4, the drying control unit 2070 acquires the elapsed time from the end of the recording counted by the timer 2040 regarding the patch row to be dried next. In addition, the basic drying time B and the air drying shortenable time T according to the elapsed time are acquired from the memory table. Further, the reduction coefficient I of the air drying shortenable time corresponding to the ink discharge amount stored in the memory is acquired from the table. The drying time D is calculated using the formula D = B−T × I.

  The drying time calculated by the drying control unit 2070 becomes gradually shorter because the elapsed time after printing becomes longer. By doing so, it is possible to reduce the time to the portion where drying and colorimetry are performed later in consideration of the fact that it is naturally dried by the time taken for the portion where drying and colorimetry have been performed earlier.

  This shortens the overall time and improves the throughput.

1000 Recording Device 1010 Recording Medium 1020 Color Patch 1030 Colorimetric Area 1040 Drying Area 2010 CPU
2020 Discharge counter 2030 Memory 2040 Timer 2070 Drying time control unit 3000 Roll-shaped recording medium 3010 Recording head 3020 Conveying roller pair 3030 Dryer 3040 Colorimetric sensor 3050 Colorimetric unit

Claims (7)

A recording unit that performs recording by applying ink to a recording medium;
Evaporation promoting means for promoting evaporation of the solvent of the ink of the pattern recorded by applying ink to the recording medium by the recording unit;
A colorimetric unit for measuring colors recorded on a recording medium by the recording unit;
Control means for controlling the evaporation promotion of the solvent by the evaporation promotion means and the color measurement by the color measurement unit alternately;
A recording apparatus.   The control means performs the evaporation promotion of the recorded pattern for each divided area, and the colorimetric unit determines the area of the area where the evaporation promotion is completed each time the evaporation promotion of one area is completed. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording apparatus is controlled to perform colorimetry.   The recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the control unit reduces the time of evaporation promotion by the evaporation promotion unit according to an elapsed time after pattern recording is performed on a target region.   The recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the control unit changes the evaporation promotion time by the evaporation promotion unit according to the type of the recording medium.   The recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the control unit changes the evaporation promotion time by the evaporation promotion unit in accordance with an ink discharge amount of a pattern in a target region.   The recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the control unit increases the evaporation promotion time by the evaporation promotion unit according to the amount of ink ejected in a portion having the highest density in the pattern of the target region. The recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the control unit changes the evaporation promotion time by the evaporation promotion unit for each target region.

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