JP2522766C - - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a printing apparatus, and more particularly, to a printing apparatus having a plurality of print heads. [Related Art] For example, an ink jet recording apparatus as a recording apparatus supplies ink to a plurality of ink ejection ports formed in a recording head (hereinafter, also referred to as a print head) and drives the ink ejection ports based on a data signal. By doing so, ink droplets are made to adhere to the paper for recording. In addition, there are two types of ink jet recording apparatuses: a line print type in which ink discharge ports for one line are arranged in a print head and recording is performed while scanning in the paper feed direction; There is a serial print type for recording while scanning. Further, in color printing such as a color graphic recorder, a plurality of print heads are mounted according to ink colors such as yellow, magenta, cyan, and black. In general, such an ink jet recording apparatus is configured such that a print head unit including a print head, a head drive circuit, and the like is unitized to be replaceable for each unit. However, in the ink jet recording apparatus, a mechanical deviation between the heads of each color or a mechanical deviation after replacing the head unit causes a color deviation when the respective colors are superimposed. It must be adjusted to minimize the deviation. However, in such a conventional technique, there is a problem in that it takes time and effort to adjust the machine misalignment, and it is difficult to perform accurate adjustment. [Purpose] An object of the present invention is to solve such a problem of the prior art, and to make it possible to easily and easily correct the displacement of each recording head for all of the plurality of recording heads. Is to provide. The present invention relates to all of a plurality of recording heads, and enables input of data corresponding to the amount of positional deviation of each recording head. Based on the input data corresponding to the amount of positional deviation of each recording head, each recording head The above object is achieved by changing the print data for the print head by changing means provided commonly to each print head. EXAMPLES Hereinafter, a specific description will be given of an example in which the present invention is applied to a line print type color inkjet recording apparatus with reference to the drawings. Figure 1 (A) shows the head assembly 8 of the present embodiment, the assembly, yellow 4 _Y, magenta 4 _M, cyan 4 _c, black 4 Replace each print head unit _B in the assembly (desorption) can It has the following structure. Further, each of the print head unit 4 _{Y, M, C,} will by adhering ink droplets to record an image front to the paper to be scanned feed (not shown) of the _B. In the illustrated example, the head elements 9 are staggered in two rows in the upper and lower rows in each head unit. One element is formed of 128 bits (corresponding to the number of ink ejection ports), and 14 upper and lower pieces are used. ing. In Figure 2, the data memory 3 is print data Sa sent from the host computer 1 corresponding the through horizontal registration adjustment circuit 2 in each of the head unit 4 _Y to 4 _{B Y}
, Written to _{3 M, 3 c, 3 B} . Data written in the data memory 3 _Y to 3 _B is sent to the head unit, the dots corresponding to the data is printed. The switch 7 synchronizes with the select signal Sf from the timing circuit 5 to switch data 6Y, 6
One of M, 6C and 6B is selected and output as a select signal Sm. The horizontal registration adjustment circuit 2 receives the select signal Sm as a horizontal registration adjustment signal. FIG. 3 shows the data structure of the signal Sa from the host computer 1,
The serial signals of Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (B) correspond to the printing paper 10 and the head units _4Y , _M , _C , and _{B of} the respective colors as shown in the figure. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the horizontal registration adjustment circuit, and FIG. 6 is an embodiment of the horizontal registration adjustment circuit 2. The serial data Sa from the host computer is an 8-bit shift register 1
1a. The shift outputs Sb ₀ to Sb ₁₅ of 11a ₁ and 11a ₂ are input to the selector 12, and select Sc by the previous select signal Sm. The selected Sc is input to the shift register 11b, and the shift output Sd is latched by the data latch 13 to obtain parallel data Se. That is, by changing the select signal Sm, the data of the latch 13 can be changed, so that the horizontal registration adjustment can be performed. For example, as shown in FIG. 1 (B), if the cyan print head unit _4c is displaced by two dots as shown in the figure, the data printed at _4c must be data shifted by two dots. Must. In the third diagram, the cyan head unit 4 _c on the paper 10 is to being shifted by two dots to the left, the print data written in the data memory 3 _M for cyan head unit in the second figure, The data must be delayed by two dots from the other head unit data. For example, assuming that the serial data Sa sent from the host computer 1 in FIG. 4 is data as shown in FIG. 5, the shift register 11a
The shift outputs Sb ₀ to Sb ₁₅ are as shown in FIG. Now, yellow 4 _Y, magenta 4 _M, the select signal Sm to the print head unit of black 4 _B is Sb1 are select, when latch clock Sg of the data latch 13 is latched by t7 (Sg) of FIG. I do. The signal Sc selected by the selector 12 at Sm = Sb1 is output from the shift register 11b in FIG.
) To obtain the latch signal Seymb. The latch signal Se is Sd7
The side is the left side of the sheet 10. On the other hand, for the select signal Sm for the cyan _4c print head unit,
By selecting b3, Sec delayed by 2 dots from Seymb is set to the fifth.
It can be obtained as shown in FIG. That is, the cyan head 4 shown in FIG.
The shift of two dots of _c can be adjusted by changing the value of the select signal Sm. Generally, as shown in FIG. 4, an arbitrary lateral registration can be adjusted by the number of shift registers 11a. [Effects] As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, it is possible to input data corresponding to the amount of displacement of each of the plurality of recording heads, and By changing the print data for each print head by changing means provided in common for each print head based on the data corresponding to the position shift amount, the position shift of all print heads in the array direction of the print elements is achieved. Can be easily and easily corrected.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 (A) is a perspective view showing an embodiment of an ink jet recording apparatus to which the present invention is applied, and FIG. 1 (B) is the head unit shown in FIG. 1 (A). FIG. 2 is a block diagram exemplifying a print data processing system in the present embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a structure of print data sent from a host computer and a print position on a sheet. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example of a horizontal registration adjustment circuit according to the present invention. FIGS. 5 (A) to 5 (C) are timing diagrams for explaining the operation of FIG. 4, and FIG. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a more specific circuit configuration of the present embodiment. 1 ... host computer, 2 ... horizontal registration adjustment circuit, 3 _Y ~ _B ... data memory, 4 _Y ~ _B ... print head unit, 5 ... timing controller, 6 ... Digital Switch, 6 _Y ~ _B ... digital Sw data, 7 ... Switcher, 8 ... Head assembly, 9 ... Head element, 10 ... Print paper, 11a, b ... Shift register, 12 ... Selector, 13 ... Data latch, Sa ... Print data from host computer, Sb ... Shift register 11a shift output, the output data of the Sc ... selector 12, the shift output of Sd ... shift register 11b, Se ... parallel data to be sent to the data memory 3 _Y ~ _B, from the timing circuit for selecting the Sf ... digital Sw data 6 _Y ~ _B Output, Sg ... Latch clock of shift register 11b, Sm ... Sc is selected Output from the switch 7, W _{Y -B} ... write signals to the data memories 3 _{Y -B} .

Claims (1)

Claims: 1) A plurality of recording heads in which a plurality of recording elements are arranged in a first direction are arranged in a second direction different from the first direction, according to recording data input from a host device. A recording device for recording an image on a recording material by using a recording device, wherein, for all of the plurality of recording heads, input means capable of inputting data corresponding to the amount of displacement of each recording head in the first direction; when the input of the recording data from, change the recording data for each recording head on the basis of data corresponding to the displacement amount of each recording head to be selectively input from said input means, provided in common to the respective recording heads It has a resulting change means, and characterized by recording an image on a recording material by driving the recording head in accordance with the changed data recorded by the changing unit serial Apparatus.