JP2786159B2 - Inkjet printer - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink-jet printer, and more particularly to an ink-jet printer which does not require a large-capacity memory because it is not necessary to set parameters of driving energy of an ink-jet head in a driving table.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example of a conventional ink jet printer.

In a conventional ink jet printer, one pixel is represented by a plurality of bits of data in order to print one pixel at a density of n gradations. For this reason, as shown in FIG.
The data is input by the interface circuit 21 to the data buffer 29 and stored in the data buffer 29. The control circuit 22 develops these data in bit units (n-1) in accordance with the density gradation (gradation) to be printed. A driving energy parameter corresponding to the gradation (an index for setting a driving force corresponding to the printing gradation when driving the ink-jet head) is extracted from the driving table 30, and data for one pixel is obtained by ( n-1) The density gradation printing is performed by performing the printing by driving the ink-jet head 24 according to the parameter of the driving energy by the driving circuit 23 after performing the switching of the number of times.

In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 4-220358, density gradation data previously developed into data for each density gradation is input from a host computer, and is driven in accordance with the input order of the density gradation data from a driving table. There is disclosed a thermal printer that extracts an energy parameter, operates a driving circuit based on the driving energy parameter, and prints density gradation data on a thermal head.

[0005]

In the conventional printer for printing density gradation data as described above, the parameters of the driving energy are set in advance in the driving table, and the parameters are adjusted according to the parameters of the driving energy extracted from the driving table. It is difficult to change the parameter of the driving energy because the printing is performed by driving the print head, and it is not easy to change the number of steps of the density gradation or to perform the density correction. However, there is a drawback in that a drive table, which is a memory for storing the above parameters, is required.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional printer, to easily change the number of steps of density gradation and to correct density, and to set parameters of driving energy in a driving table. It is an object of the present invention to provide an ink jet printer which does not require a large-capacity memory because it is not necessary to set the printer in advance.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink jet printer comprising: an interface circuit for inputting density gradation print data and a parameter of driving energy of an ink jet head from a host computer; A control circuit that transfers to the inkjet head and outputs a drive control signal corresponding to the parameter of the drive energy to a drive circuit, the drive circuit that drives the inkjet head according to the drive control signal, and the drive circuit The inkjet head that is driven to print the density gradation print data.

According to a second ink jet printer of the present invention, there is provided an interface circuit for inputting density gradation print data and a parameter of a driving energy of an ink jet head from a host computer, and the density gradation print data and the input data inputted by the interface circuit. A data buffer for storing the driving energy parameter, a control circuit for transferring the density gradation print data of the data buffer to the inkjet head, and outputting a driving control signal corresponding to the driving energy parameter to a driving circuit; A driving circuit for driving the ink-jet head according to the driving control signal; and the ink-jet head driven by the driving circuit to print the density gradation print data.

[0009]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation of the embodiment of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation of a host computer in the embodiment of FIG. is there.

The inkjet printer 7 shown in FIG. 1 receives the density gradation print data 5 and the driving energy parameters of the ink jet head 4 from the host computer 8 and converts the density gradation print data 5 inputted by the interface circuit 1 into the ink jet head 4. And a control circuit 2 that outputs a drive control signal 6 obtained by converting a parameter of drive energy of the inkjet head 4 into an electric signal to the drive circuit 3, and a drive voltage corresponding to the drive control signal 6 from the control circuit 2. A drive circuit 3 for driving the inkjet head 4 and an inkjet head 4 driven by the drive circuit 3 to print the density gradation print data 5 are provided.

Next, the operation of the ink jet printer 7 configured as described above will be described with reference to FIGS.

The host computer 8 has a parameter table which stores parameters of the driving energy of the ink jet head. The parameters in the parameter table can be easily changed by an input device connected to the host computer 8. can do.

As shown in FIG. 3, the host computer 8 determines whether or not there is density gradation print data to be printed with the number of gradations n (steps 41 and 4).
2) When density gradation print data of gradation n exists,
The driving energy parameters of the ink jet head 4 corresponding to the gradation n are read out from the parameter table and sent to the ink jet printer 7 (step 43), and then only the density gradation print data of the gradation n is sent to the ink jet printer 7 (step 43). Step 44). The above operation is performed for all the gradations equal to or less than the gradation number n (step 4).
5 and step 46), send all the density gradation print data having the gradation number n or less to the ink jet printer 7.

As shown in FIG. 2, when the parameters of the driving energy of the ink jet head 4 are sent from the host computer 8 as shown in FIG.
It is received by the interface circuit 1 and transferred to the control circuit 2. The control circuit 2 generates a drive control signal 6 according to the parameter of the drive energy and sends it to the drive circuit 3. The drive circuit 3 generates a drive voltage corresponding to the density gradation print data at that time according to the drive control signal 6 (step 31). Subsequently, when the interface circuit 1 receives the density gradation print data from the host computer 8, it transfers the interface circuit 1 to the control circuit 2, and the control circuit 2 transfers it to the ink jet head 4 (step 32). Upon receiving the density gradation print data 5 from the control circuit 2, the inkjet head 4 operates with the drive voltage generated by the drive circuit 3 to print the density gradation print data (step 33).

The above processing is performed on all the density gradation print data sent from the host computer 8 to complete a series of printing.

As described above, the parameters of the driving energy of the ink-jet head are input together with the density gradation print data from the host computer, and the driving voltage of the ink-jet head is thereby generated to perform printing. It is not necessary to set the parameters in the drive table, and thus it is not necessary to provide a large-capacity memory in the ink jet printer. Further, when the number of steps of the density gradation is changed or the density correction is performed, the change can be easily performed in the host computer, so that the number of steps of the density gradation and the density correction can be easily performed. In addition, the inkjet printer 7 does not need to perform such a process, and thus can perform gradation printing at high speed.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

This embodiment is obtained by adding a data buffer 19 to the embodiment shown in FIG. That is, the configurations and operations of the interface circuit 11, the drive circuit 13, and the inkjet head 14 of the inkjet printer 17 of FIG. 4 are the same as the configurations and operations of the corresponding portions of the embodiment of FIG. The control circuit 12 inputs the data input by the interface circuit 11 from the host computer 18 via the data buffer 19. The data buffer 19 stores data input from the host computer 18 by the interface circuit 11.

With this configuration, the host computer 18 does not need to send data in synchronization with the printing speed of the ink jet printer 17, and can continuously send data regardless of the printing speed of the ink jet printer 17. Becomes possible. Therefore, the host computer 18 is released from the print processing earlier. The ink jet printer 17 has a data buffer 1
The data stored in 9 is taken into the control circuit 12 in accordance with the printing speed of the ink jet head 14 and printed.

[0021]

As described above, in the ink jet printer of the present invention, the parameters of the driving energy of the ink jet head are input from the host computer together with the density gradation print data, thereby generating the driving voltage of the ink jet head and performing printing. By doing so, there is no need to set the parameters of the drive energy in the drive table, and thus there is no need to provide a large-capacity memory in the ink jet printer. Further, when the number of steps of the density gradation is changed or the density correction is performed, the change can be easily performed in the host computer. Therefore, the number of steps of the density gradation and the density correction can be easily performed. In addition, there is no need for such processing, and there is an effect that high-speed gradation printing can be performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation of the host computer in the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a conventional inkjet printer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1.11.21 Interface circuit 2.12.22 Control circuit 3.13.23 Drive circuit 4.14.24 Inkjet head 5.25 Density gradation print data 6.26 Drive control signal 7.17.27 Inkjet printer 8・ 18 ・ 28 Host computer 19 ・ 29 Data buffer 30 Drive table 31-33 ・ 41-46 steps

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] An interface circuit for inputting density gradation print data and a parameter of driving energy of an ink jet head from a host computer; transferring the density gradation print data to the ink jet head and responding to the parameter of the driving energy; A control circuit that outputs a drive control signal to the drive circuit, the drive circuit that drives the inkjet head in accordance with the drive control signal, and the inkjet that is driven by the drive circuit and prints the density gradation print data. An ink jet printer comprising a head. 2. An interface circuit for inputting density gradation print data and parameters of driving energy of an ink jet head from a host computer, and storing the density gradation print data and the driving energy parameters input by the interface circuit. A data buffer, a control circuit that transfers the density gradation print data of the data buffer to the inkjet head, and outputs a drive control signal corresponding to the parameter of the drive energy to a drive circuit; An ink jet printer, comprising: the driving circuit for driving the ink jet head; and the ink jet head driven by the driving circuit to print the density gradation print data.