JP2013111776A - Recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a recording apparatus where recording position deviation due to the attitude variation of a carriage can be corrected with high accuracy, regardless of precision of a member for guiding the carriage or the like, and also, the carriage is stably moved.SOLUTION: Processing of acquiring the inclination correction amount of a recording head is performed for all the sections between reference marks. The forward-movement operation of the carriage is started at predetermined timing (S107). In the forward-movement operation, whenever the carriage reaches the position of the reference mark (k) (S108), drive data of a cam motor in the section from the reference mark (k) to a reference mark (k+1), which have been acquired and stored in a memory at a step S106, are read (S109), then, the cam motor for inclining the recording head is driven on the basis of the data (S110). Accordingly, in the section from the reference mark (k) to the reference mark (k+1), the recording head is inclined to counterbalance the attitude variation of the carriage in this section, the recording position deviation due to the attitude variation of the carriage is suppressed as a result.

Description

  The present invention relates to a recording apparatus, and more particularly to a technique for correcting a recording position shift caused by a change in posture in a scanning direction of a recording head that scans a recording medium.

  In a recording apparatus that scans a recording medium with respect to a recording medium and performs recording by, for example, ejecting ink from the recording head during this scanning, generally, the carriage mounted with the recording head is moved to scan the recording head. To do. In this movement of the carriage, the position or posture of the carriage may fluctuate due to, for example, the accuracy of a support / guide member such as a carriage rail that guides the movement while supporting the carriage, or a mounting error. When such fluctuations occur, the posture of the recording head mounted on the carriage also fluctuates during scanning, and as a result, the landing position of the ink ejected from the recording head deviates from the original position and the recording image quality is impaired. There is.

  As a technique for correcting the recording position shift due to the posture fluctuation in the scan of the recording head, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-228867 detects the posture variation with the movement of the carriage by a sensor, and according to the detected variation amount, A method for suppressing a change in posture of the recording head is described. Specifically, in accordance with the detected change in the posture of the carriage, an actuator is operated so that a part of the carriage comes into contact with the guide member and follows the guide member, so that the posture of the carriage does not change. ing.

JP 2007-090875 A

  However, as described in Patent Document 1, the method in which an actuator is operated so that a part of the carriage is brought into contact with the guide member so as to follow the guide member still depends on the accuracy of the guide member. There is a problem. That is, since a part of the carriage is brought into contact with the guide member, there is no problem that the posture of the carriage or the recording head depends on the accuracy of the guide member that makes contact. Further, since the carriage is moved in a state where a part of the carriage is in contact with the guide member, there is a problem that a relatively large load is generated with respect to the movement of the carriage and the stability of the carriage movement itself is lowered.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a recording apparatus capable of correcting a recording position shift due to a change in the posture of a carriage with high accuracy regardless of the accuracy of a guide member and the like, and capable of stably moving the carriage itself. is there.

  For this purpose, the present invention is a recording apparatus that scans the head by moving the carriage on which the head is mounted, and is a member that is disposed facing the moving range of the carriage, in the direction of the movement. A member provided with a plurality of reference marks arranged along, and data on the amount of tilt when the carriage tilts while the carriage moves from one reference mark to the next reference mark in the plurality of arranged reference marks Tilt data holding means for holding the head, and while the carriage moves from the one reference mark to the next reference mark, the head is tilted so as to cancel the head tilt due to the carriage tilt based on the tilt amount data. It is characterized by comprising tilt control means.

  According to the above configuration, the recording position shift due to the change in the posture of the carriage can be corrected with high accuracy regardless of the accuracy of the member for guiding the carriage, and the carriage itself can be stably moved.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a recording unit of a recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is the schematic diagram which looked at the carriage rail in the structure demonstrated in FIG. 1, the rail adjustment board, and the rail support plate from the front of the apparatus. It is a figure explaining the reference mark for detecting the inclination of a carriage, and the sensor which detects it. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a processing circuit configuration for controlling the posture of a recording head based on detection of a reference mark by a sensor, among control configurations in a recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating attachment of a sensor to a carriage during manufacturing of the recording apparatus. (A)-(c) is a figure explaining the relationship between the detection area relative position of the sensor with respect to a reference mark, and the inclination of a carriage. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a recording operation of the recording apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention, and more particularly, illustrating a posture control of the recording head.

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

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a recording unit of a recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and shows the recording unit as viewed from the side. The recording unit has a configuration in which a recording head 121 mounted on the carriage 101 scans a recording medium P such as paper conveyed on the platen 131 by the movement of the carriage 101.

  As a mechanism for moving the carriage 101, a carriage rail 113 is provided on the rail support plate 111 via a rail adjustment plate 112. The carriage rail 113 is slidably engaged with a semicircular rail ring 102 provided on the carriage 101, whereby the carriage rail 113 can guide the movement of the carriage 101. Further, a sub rail 114 is provided at another location of the rail support plate 111. The sub rail 114 is sandwiched between the upper and lower sub rail rollers 103, and the movement of the carriage 101 can be guided by the rotation of the roller 103 as the carriage 101 moves. Furthermore, a belt roller 115 for transmitting power for transporting the carriage 101 is attached to the rail support plate 111. On the other hand, a driving belt 104 is attached to the carriage 101 by a belt fixing member 105, and the driving belt 104 is hung on a belt roller 115. Thus, the carriage 101 can be moved by moving the drive belt 104 by the rotation of a carriage motor (not shown). The carriage rail 113 and the sub rail 111 described above extend in a direction perpendicular to the paper surface of the drawing, that is, in the scanning direction, so that the movement of the carriage 101 in the scanning direction can be guided.

  A pressing spring 122 for urging the recording head 121 rightward in the drawing is attached between the carriage 101 and the recording head 121. In addition, a shaft 123 serving as a fulcrum when the recording head 121 is tilted is provided at a position diagonal to the pressing spring 122 with respect to the recording head 121. Further, an eccentric cam 124 is provided at a position facing the pressing spring 122 with respect to the recording head 121. The eccentric cam 124 is configured to be rotated by driving the motor 125. The cam sensor 126 is a transmissive photo interrupter, and can detect the position of the eccentric cam 124 by a light shielding flag provided in a part of the eccentric cam 124. This recording head includes, for example, an ejection port array in which ejection ports for ejecting ink are arranged for each of yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (Bk) inks. Are arranged in the scan direction of the recording head.

  FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the carriage rail, rail adjustment plate, and rail support plate viewed from the front of the apparatus in the configuration described above. The rail support plate 111 is formed by bending a metal plate and is a part of the structural member of the main body. If the carriage rail 113 is fixed to the rail support plate 111 as it is, the rail may be distorted due to a difference in mutual dimensions. Therefore, the carriage rail 113 is fixed via the rail adjustment plate 112. That is, the rail adjustment plate 112 is provided with an oval slit 118 obliquely, and an adjustment pin 116 fixed to the rail adjustment plate 112 is inserted therein. When the rail adjustment plate 112 is slid left and right in FIG. 2, the rail adjustment plate 112 moves up and down along the slit 118. By this operation, the height of the rail adjustment plate is adjusted, and when the height of the carriage rail 113 supported by the rail adjustment plate 112 reaches a specified value, the rail adjustment plate 112 is fixed by the fixing screw 117 provided on the rail adjustment plate 112. Is fixed to the support plate 111.

  Hereinafter, the detection of the inclination of the carriage in the recording apparatus having the above-described configuration will be described.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a reference mark for detecting the inclination of the carriage and a sensor for detecting the reference mark. As shown in FIG. 3, the carriage 101 is provided with a first sensor 141 and a second sensor 142 at both ends in the scanning direction. These sensors are CMOS image sensors. On the other hand, a plurality of reference marks 132 and 133 (only two are shown in FIG. 3) are provided on the platen 131 at positions where the respective sensors can face each other by carriage movement. That is, the platen is provided with the plurality of reference marks facing the range of movement of the carriage. As will be described later, the plurality of reference marks are marks detected by the sensors 141 and 142 when detecting an inclination (posture change) about the carriage rail of the carriage 101 as an axis.

  FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a processing circuit configuration for controlling the posture of the recording head based on the detection of the reference mark by the sensor, among the control configurations in the recording apparatus of the present embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 4, in the processing circuit 200, detection data from the sensors 141 and 142 mounted on the carriage is input by the input circuit 201. The input data is stored in the memory 208. Since the memory 208 is a non-volatile memory, the input data is saved even when the power of the main body is turned off. As will be described later with reference to FIG. 7, this memory also functions as a data holding unit that holds tilt amount data relating to the tilt amount of the carriage.

  The tilt calculation circuit 202 calculates the tilt of the carriage 101 based on the data stored in the memory 208. The correction circuit 203 calculates the tilt amount of the recording head 121 based on the carriage tilt calculated by the tilt calculation circuit 202. The motor control circuit 204 outputs drive data of the motor 125 based on the data calculated by the correction circuit 203, and the motor drive 205 drives the motor 125 according to this drive data. Thereby, the recording head 121 mounted on the carriage 101 can be tilted so as to cancel the change in the posture of the carriage.

  In FIG. 3, when the carriage is moved in the advancing direction (from right to left) and the sensor 141 reaches the position of the reference mark 132, the sensor 141 is driven to detect the reference mark 132 and the detected data is stored in the memory 208. To do. Further, when the carriage is moved and the sensor 142 reaches the position of the reference mark 132, the sensor 142 is driven to detect the reference mark 132, and the detected data is stored in the memory 208. Similarly, when the sensor 141 reaches the reference mark 133, the data of the origin of detection of the reference mark 133 is stored in the memory 208. Further, when the carriage 142 is moved and the sensor 142 reaches the position of the reference mark 133, the reference mark 133 is detected and the data is stored in the memory 208. Similarly, other reference marks arranged at predetermined intervals in the carriage movement direction on the platen 131 are also detected by the sensors 141 and 142, and the detected data is stored in the memory 208. Similar detection and the storage of the detection data are performed by reversing the traveling direction. These stored data represent changes in inclination (posture changes) accompanying the movement of the carriage, and are used for inclination control of the recording head in a recording operation to be described later with reference to FIG.

  Here, attachment of the sensors 141 and 142 to the carriage 101 during manufacturing of the recording apparatus will be described. FIG. 5 is a view for explaining this attachment, and is a view of the carriage 101 as viewed from above. In FIG. 5, for simplification of illustration, the upper recording head 121, the presser spring 122, and the shaft 123 are made visible through the upper part of the carriage. In FIG. 5, the alternate long and short dash line represents the center line of the recording head 121. Specifically, it is a line connecting the centers of a plurality of ejection port arrays arranged in the scanning direction in the recording head. The sensors 141 and 142 are attached to the carriage at the time of manufacture. At that time, the sensor is mounted so that the center of the detection part of each sensor overlaps the above-described center line of the recording head 121 and the distance between the sensor 141 and the sensor 142 is within a specified value range. After this attachment, a plurality of alignment marks 301 arranged along the carriage movement direction and used during manufacturing, that is, different from the reference mark, are detected by the respective sensors 141 and 142. Then, the shift amounts of the sensors 141 and 142 at the respective alignment marks are stored in the memory 208. The stored data is used as an offset amount of the detected data when detecting a reference mark described later.

  FIGS. 6A to 6C are diagrams for explaining the relationship between the relative position of the detection areas of the sensors 141 and 142 with respect to the reference mark and the inclination of the carriage. Reference numerals “1” and “2” in FIG. The elements shown correspond to sensors 141 and 142, respectively.

  FIG. 6A shows a case where the carriage is not inclined, and the positions of the sensor areas of the detection sensors 141 and 142 with respect to the reference mark are the same (center), and therefore the detection sensors 141 and 142 receive the same data. To detect. In this case, the difference between the data detected by the detection sensors 141 and 142 at the reference mark for detection is zero, and the difference data is stored in the memory 208 as tilt data at the reference mark.

  FIG. 6B shows a case where there is an inclination on the sensor 142 side of the carriage. That is, when the sensor 141 detects the reference mark, the reference mark is detected at the center of the sensor area because there is no inclination on the sensor 141 side of the carriage. On the other hand, when the sensor 142 detects the reference mark, since the sensor 142 side of the carriage is inclined downward, data in which the reference mark moves upward with respect to the sensor area is detected according to the movement amount. . In this case, the difference between the data detected by the detection sensors 141 and 142 at the reference mark for detection is stored in the memory 208 as tilt data at the reference mark.

  FIG. 6C shows a case where there is a tilt upward on the sensor 142 side of the carriage, contrary to the case shown in FIG. 6B. In this case, when the sensor 142 detects the reference mark, since the sensor 142 side of the carriage is tilted upward, data in which the reference mark has moved downward relative to the sensor area is detected according to the amount of movement. . Similarly, the difference in data detected by the detection sensors 141 and 142 at the reference mark for detection is stored in the memory 208 as tilt data at the reference mark. In this way, the relative position of each of the plurality of reference marks with respect to the carriage is detected by the sensor, and the tilt amount data relating to the next reference mark is calculated from one reference mark based on the detection result. The inclination calculation circuit 202 shown in FIG. 4 functions as this inclination amount calculation unit. The reference mark is detected under the same conditions as the carriage moving state at the time of recording.

  Note that the interval between the two adjacent reference marks described above is the same as or shorter than the distance between the first sensor 141 and the second sensor 142 mounted on the carriage.

  As described above, the inclination data, which is the difference between the detection data obtained by the sensors 141 and 142, obtained from the plurality of reference marks arranged in the moving direction of the carriage, is stored in the memory 208 for each reference mark.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the recording operation of the recording apparatus according to the present embodiment, and in particular, showing the posture control of the recording head.

  In FIG. 7, when the recording data including the recording mode is received (S101) and the recording operation is started, first, before starting the movement of the carriage, that is, the scanning of the recording head, the inclination data for each reference mark is displayed. A process for obtaining the amount of inclination between each reference mark based on the base is performed. First, the recording mode is confirmed from the received data (S102). Since the carriage speed is determined by the recording mode, the carriage movement time between the reference marks is obtained from the distance between the reference marks (S103). Specifically, in the present embodiment, for example, the first sensor 141 located in front of the movement direction of the two sensors is kth (k is an integer from 1 to n, and n is a reference mark). The number of times until the same first front sensor 141 passes the (k + 1) th reference mark k + 1 after it passes the reference mark k.

  Next, as described above with reference to FIGS. 6A to 6C, the inclination data for each reference mark, which is the difference between the data detected by the detection sensors 141 and 142, stored in the memory is read (S104). . Then, the inclination calculation circuit 202 calculates the amount of inclination of the carriage between the reference marks (S105). Specifically, the difference between the value indicated by the inclination data of the reference mark k and the value indicated by the inclination data of the reference mark k + 1 read in step S104 is obtained. Then, the quotient obtained by dividing this difference by the movement time between the reference mark k and the reference mark k + 1, that is, the amount of inclination per unit, obtained in step S103.

  Next, the inclination amount per unit time obtained in step S105 is converted into an inclination correction amount of the recording head per unit time. Specifically, the eccentric cam for tilting the recording head is converted into a rotation angle per unit time, and further converted into the rotation number per unit time of the motor that rotates the cam (S106).

  The processing for obtaining the recording head tilt correction amount described above is performed for all the reference marks. Then, at the predetermined timing, the carriage forward movement operation is started (S107). In this movement, every time the carriage reaches the position of the reference mark k (S108), the cam motor drive data between the reference mark k and the reference mark k + 1 obtained in step S106 and stored in the memory is read (S109). The cam motor is driven based on the data (S110). Then, when the position of the next reference mark k + 1 is reached (S111), it is determined whether or not the forward path recording is finished (S112). If the recording has not ended, the current reference mark position is set as k, and the process returns to S109 to perform the same processing. With the above processing, the recording head can be tilted between the reference mark and the next reference mark so as to cancel the inclination of the recording head due to the change in the carriage posture in this section. Deviation can be suppressed.

  If it is determined that the outbound recording is completed (S112), it is then determined whether the recording is completed (S113). If the recording is not completed, the return path is recorded. Similarly, the recording head tilt correction is performed in the recording on the return path. That is, every time the carriage starts moving in the return path and the carriage reaches the position of the reference mark k (S114), the cam motor drive data of the reference mark k-1 is read from the reference mark k (S115). Based on this, the cam motor is driven (S116). When the position of the next reference mark k-1 is reached (S117), it is determined whether or not the return path recording is completed (S118). If the recording has not ended, the process of step S115 is repeated with the current position of the reference mark as k. When the return path recording is completed (S118), it is determined whether the recording is completed (S119). If the recording is completed, the process is terminated as it is. However, if the recording is continued, the process proceeds to step S108 in order to perform the forward recording.

  The control of the recording head tilt correction motor of this embodiment will be described. In this embodiment, a DC motor is used as the motor. In order to control the rotation speed of the motor, the motor control circuit 204 generates a PWM signal and transmits it to the motor drive 205. The motor drive 205 controls the rotation of the motor 125 based on the PWM signal.

  The timing for detecting the difference in inclination between the reference marks in the apparatus of the present embodiment is as follows. First, it is at the time of starting the recording apparatus or before starting recording. Alternatively, it is detected at the timing of the initial operation when the recording apparatus is installed. By performing the initial operation, recording with the tilt of the recording head corrected can be performed thereafter. Next, the recording is performed at a timing when the number of recording sheets or the number of carriage movements reaches a predetermined value. This is because when the apparatus is operated, dirt on the carriage rail, abrasion of the carriage rail and rail ring, and the like may occur, and the carriage conveyance state may change over time.

  Next, the moving speed of the carriage according to the recording mode in the recording apparatus of the present embodiment will be described. Generally, the recording mode is transmitted together with recording data from a host computer connected to the recording apparatus through an interface such as a USB. On the other hand, the recording apparatus has several recording modes determined by the recording apparatus. Furthermore, the moving speed of the carriage is determined by the recording mode. In the present embodiment, by the method described above, carriage tilt data in accordance with the conveyance speed of the printer is detected and stored in the nonvolatile memory 208. At the time of recording, data transmitted in accordance with the recording mode transmitted is read from the memory 208 and recorded while performing tilt control, so that the recording position deviation of dots is reduced and the recording image quality is improved.

(Other embodiments)
In the above-described embodiment of the present invention, the present invention is applied to the correction of the inclination of the recording head caused by the change in the posture of the carriage on which the recording head is mounted, but the application of the present invention is not limited to this form. For example, the present invention can be applied to a case where the recording apparatus includes a reservoir colorimetric head that measures patches recorded on a recording medium. That is, the present invention can also be applied to correction of the inclination of a colorimetric head when the carriage on which the colorimetric head is mounted in the recording apparatus changes its posture as it moves.

  Further, the recording head is not limited to the ink jet system. For example, the present invention can be applied to a recording apparatus in which a thermal transfer recording head is mounted on a carriage and the recording head is scanned by moving the carriage.

101 Carriage 102 Rail ring 103 Sub rail roller 111 Rail support plate 112 Rail adjustment plate 113 Carriage rail 121 Recording head 122 Pressing spring 123 Shaft 123
124 Eccentric cam 125 Motor 126 Cam sensor 131 Platen 132, 133 Reference mark 141 First sensor 142 Second sensor 203 Circuit for calculating head tilt amount 204 Motor control circuit 205 Motor drive

Claims (4)

A recording apparatus that scans the head by moving a carriage on which the head is mounted,
A member disposed to face the moving range of the carriage, and a member provided with a plurality of reference marks arranged along the moving direction;
Tilt data holding means for holding data of the amount of tilt when the carriage tilts while the carriage moves from one reference mark to the next reference mark in the plurality of reference marks arranged;
Tilt control means for tilting the head so as to cancel the tilt of the head due to the tilt of the carriage based on the tilt amount data while the carriage moves from the one reference mark to the next reference mark;
A recording apparatus characterized by comprising:   A sensor attached to the carriage; and by moving the carriage, the sensor detects a relative position of each of the plurality of reference marks arranged with respect to the carriage, and based on the detection result, The recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an inclination amount calculating unit that calculates data of the inclination amount relating to a next reference mark from a reference mark.   3. The tilt amount data is calculated before the recording apparatus starts recording, when the recording apparatus is started, or when the number of recording sheets or the number of carriage movements reaches a predetermined value. The recording device described.   The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the detection of the plurality of reference marks is performed under the same conditions as a carriage moving state during recording.

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