JP4789679B2 - Inkjet recording apparatus and inkjet recording method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus and an ink jet recording method using the ink jet recording apparatus, and more particularly to a recording apparatus that controls a moving speed of a carriage.

  For example, as an information output device in a word processor, personal computer, facsimile, or the like, there is a printer that records information such as desired characters and images on a sheet-like recording medium such as paper or film.

  Various types of recording methods are known for printers, but inkjet methods have recently been used for reasons such as non-contact recording on recording media such as paper, easy colorization, and high quietness. Particular attention has been paid. In addition, a serial recording type recording apparatus that performs recording while reciprocally scanning a recording head that ejects ink according to desired image information in a scanning direction that intersects the conveyance direction of a recording medium such as paper is inexpensive and downsized. Is generally widely used from the standpoint of ease.

  In particular, serial recording type ink jet recording apparatuses have been rapidly spreading due to the remarkable improvement in recording quality due to the recent progress in high resolution and multi-color ink. In such an apparatus, the resolution is further increased by reducing the ink discharge amount per dot while increasing the density of the nozzles that discharge ink droplets. On the other hand, in order to realize an image quality closer to a silver halide photograph, in addition to the basic four color inks (cyan, magenta, yellow, black), a light ink or a secondary color ink that has a reduced density is used. Multi-tone recording is performed using a certain complementary color ink (red, blue, green). As described above, various techniques have been developed to improve the quality of recorded images.

  In addition, even with a decrease in recording speed, which is a concern as this high image quality progresses, good throughput is achieved by techniques such as an increase in driving frequency and bidirectional recording that performs recording in the forward and backward passes of recording scan. Has been obtained.

  However, when the carriage moves at a high speed in order to obtain a good throughput as described above, there are concerns about some adverse effects (dot landing position deviation, ejection stability, etc.).

  For example, when forming an image using a recording head in which the ejection amount of ink droplets ejected from the ejection ports is 4 pl and 256 ejection ports are arranged at a 1200 dpi pitch, the ejection is performed from ejection ports located at both ends of the recording head. A phenomenon has occurred in which the landing positions of the ink droplets to be shifted greatly. Hereinafter, this phenomenon is referred to as an edge portion. FIG. 6 shows a state where the landing position of the ink droplet greatly depends on the boundary of paper feeding. When an image is formed using a recording head having an ejection amount of 4 pl and ejection ports arranged at a 1200 dpi pitch, as shown in the drawing, the landing positions of the ink droplets for several drops after starting recording are not changed (not shifted). ). However, as the carriage speeds up, it begins to sway, and the part where the landing position deviates greatly shifts by about 50 μm. The left dot row in FIG. 6 indicates the landing position of the ink droplets ejected from the discharge port (nozzle) downstream in the transport direction of the previous scan, and the right dot row is upstream in the transport direction of the subsequent scan. The landing positions of the ink droplets discharged from the discharge ports are shown. As shown in FIG. 6, when the landing positions of the ink droplets change, white streaks appear between the area recorded in the previous scan and the area recorded in the subsequent scan, and the image quality is lowered. End up. White streaks appear as white streaks where the ink droplets do not adhere when the paper ground color is white. If the paper ground color is another color, other colors A streak-shaped line appears.

  FIG. 7 schematically shows the ejection tendency of the recording head as seen from the carriage direction when the dots at both ends of the recording head have already started to crawl. As shown in the figure, it is clear that several nozzles at both ends of the recording head have an inclining tendency. Such a tendency is particularly noticeable when the carriage moves at a high speed and an image is formed with extremely small dots such as 4p1. Further, there is a problem in that the recorded image forms a portion that is recognized as a white streak in terms of visual characteristics by changing the landing position of the dots. For this reason, conventionally, it has been considered to make the white streaks visually inconspicuous by performing multi-pass printing in which the print head is scanned a plurality of times with respect to a predetermined area. When multi-pass printing is performed, the number of ink droplets ejected in one printing scan is reduced, so that the occurrence of edge twisting is reduced. Further, in multi-pass printing, the conveyance amount for conveying the recording medium after the recording scan is smaller than the width in the conveyance direction recorded in one recording scan, and the end portion is different between the previous scanning of the carriage and the subsequent scanning. Since they do not coincide with each other, it is possible to prevent the edge from becoming noticeable. However, since the above measures hinder the speeding up, there is a disadvantage that it is not suitable for further speeding up.

  Therefore, a recording apparatus that divides a predetermined area where an image is formed by a plurality of recording scans and performs recording with different recording duties in each divided area at the time of multipass recording (for example, patents) is known. Reference 1). In this case, by setting the recording duty of the divided area including both ends of the predetermined area to a value smaller than the recording duty of the divided area located inside the predetermined area, the image quality is deteriorated due to white stripes or density unevenness. It is possible to form a high-resolution image at a high speed while suppressing it.

  Also, when ejecting ink droplets, small mist-like droplets such as very small ink mist that does not contribute to image formation, or satellite ink that is slightly larger than ink mist that contributes to image formation but degrades image quality Are simultaneously discharged. Satellites and ink mist are the main factors that degrade image quality because they leave marks such as wind ripples on the media during image formation due to air turbulence caused by the high-speed movement of the carriage. To improve image quality, satellites and ink mist Or the ink mist needs to be carried out of the image area.

  On the other hand, a carriage configuration that causes satellites and ink mist floating between the recording head surface and the platen to flow out of the image area by generating a pressure lower than the pressure in the vicinity of the ejection port due to a pressure difference generated as the carriage moves. (For example, refer to Patent Document 2). Further, a means for collecting ink mist by providing a suction fan and a filter in the carriage body and circulating the atmosphere in a direction parallel to the carriage by using an operation in the main scanning direction of the carriage is already known (for example, patents). Reference 3).

Furthermore, a means is also known in which a blower fan is provided in the carriage body to blow air in a direction perpendicular to the main scanning direction of the carriage (for example, Patent Document 4).
JP 2002-096455 A JP 2001-113733 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 07-025007 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 06-166173

  However, in the ink jet method, an image is formed by adhering and absorbing ink droplets on a recording medium, so various problems may occur depending on the recording medium (media) used. For example, on the paper surface in a region where a large amount of ink is absorbed, paper floating or undulation due to the expansion and contraction of fibers called cockling occurs. This cockling occurs according to the ink absorption characteristics of the recording medium, and occurs in a recording medium such as plain paper that does not have an ink receiving layer that absorbs a large amount of ink. When cockling occurs, the surface on which the ejection opening of the recording head is formed (head face surface) and the surface of the recording medium come into contact with and rub against each other, resulting in a decrease in the quality of the recorded image and a significant decrease in the function of the recording head. There was a problem.

  In addition, it is difficult to prevent this cockling from occurring due to the influence of various factors such as the environmental temperature and humidity and the state of the recorded image as well as the recording medium to be used. I can't. Therefore, in consideration of the influence of cockling, the head face surface is adjusted even if the gap between the head face surface and the media surface (hereinafter also referred to as “paper gap”) is adjusted according to the type of the recording medium or cockling occurs. It is fixed in advance at a wide interval so as not to rub.

  As described above, it is known that white streaks due to edge twisting appear more prominently when the distance between the head face surface and the media surface is widened. In particular, when performing high-resolution recording, a slight shift in the landing position of ink droplets may correspond to one or more pixel sizes, and the method of Patent Document 1 completely eliminates white stripes. Is difficult. In addition, when the number of passes by multi-pass (number of printing scans) is small, there is a problem in that it is difficult to apply the high speed because the level of duty is extremely difficult to apply.

  Furthermore, when the distance between the head face surface and the media surface is widened, turbulent flow is likely to occur between the head face surface and the media surface, so that image defects related to ink mist and satellite appear more prominently. It has been known. Therefore, although the method of Patent Document 2 carries satellites and ink mist floating between the recording head and the platen due to the pressure difference generated with the movement of the carriage to the outside of the recording area, its function is not sufficient and is completely removed. It is not possible. Furthermore, when the usage frequency and usage time of the recording apparatus increase, satellites and ink mist that have come out of the recording area may adhere to the outer wall of the flow path, thereby reducing the function of the recording apparatus. Further, although the method of Patent Document 3 is effective for collecting ink mist, it does not support bidirectional printing of a carriage and has a problem that high-speed printing cannot be achieved.

  On the other hand, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 07-137398 measures either the paper gap or the thickness of the medium, and according to the measurement result, the relative position between the head and the recording medium, the relative movement speed, and the ink droplets. It is disclosed to control at least one of the flight speeds. According to the technique described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 07-137398, the carriage movement speed can be controlled according to the gap between sheets, and therefore, control is performed so as not to cause adverse effects such as white stripes and satellite ink even when the gap between sheets is wide. Can do.

  However, since the carriage movement speed is controlled according to the gap between the sheets in the above control, for example, even when the number of passes is large and image defects due to white stripes are not visually noticeable, the carriage movement speed is decreased. There is a risk that. Similarly, when the number of passes is small and image defects due to white lines are visually noticeable, the carriage movement speed may be increased. As described above, the technique described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 07-137398 has a serious problem that it is difficult to reduce image defects and it cannot cope with further increase in throughput.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above situation, and an ink jet recording apparatus capable of recording high-speed and high-quality images according to the distance between the head face surface and the media surface and the number of passes. It is another object of the present invention to provide an ink jet recording method.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has been found to be achieved by taking one of the following configurations.

The present invention is an ink jet recording apparatus that records an image on a recording medium by moving a recording head in which nozzles for ejecting ink are arranged in a predetermined direction by a carriage in a direction different from the predetermined direction. A carriage that reciprocates, identification means for identifying at least whether the type of recording medium used for recording is plain paper or glossy paper, and when the identification means identifies the plain paper Sets the interval between the recording head and the recording medium to a first distance, and when the identification unit identifies the glossy paper, the interval is set to a second distance smaller than the first distance. A first setting means for setting a distance; an irradiation unit for irradiating light toward the surface of the recording medium for detecting the interval; and a light receiving unit for receiving reflected light reflected by the recording medium. In addition, the detecting means provided on the carriage and the adjusting means for adjusting the position of the recording head with respect to the recording medium so that the value detected by the detecting means is the interval set by the first setting means. A second setting means for setting the number of passes, which is the number of movements of the recording head required to complete an image of a predetermined area on the recording medium, and the recording for each combination of the interval and the number of passes. A storage unit that stores a table that associates the moving speed of the carriage when recording an image on a medium, the interval set by the first setting unit, and the number of passes set by the second setting unit Based on the table stored in the storage means, and control means for controlling the carriage to move at the moving speed to perform recording. When the number of passes is the same, the moving speed is higher when recording on the glossy paper than when recording on the plain paper, and the type of the recording medium is the same. Are characterized in that the moving speed increases as the number of paths set by the second setting means increases.

  According to the above configuration, the carriage speed is increased when the paper interval is narrow and the number of passes is large and image defects are not noticeable, and the carriage speed is increased when the paper interval is wide and the number of passes is small and image defects are easily noticeable. Since the speed is reduced, a high-speed and high-quality image can be recorded.

  According to the present invention, since the carriage speed is controlled in accordance with the distance between the head face surface and the media surface and the number of times of printing scanning (number of passes) for a predetermined area, a high-speed and high-quality image can be obtained. It becomes possible to record.

  FIG. 1 to FIG. 3 are diagrams for explaining a configuration example of an ink jet recording apparatus capable of ejecting ink using the above-described liquid ejection principle.

[Device main unit]
1 and 2 show a schematic configuration of a printer using the ink jet recording method. In FIG. 1, the printer main body M1000 in this embodiment includes an exterior member including a lower case M1001, an upper case M1002, an access cover M1003, and a discharge tray M1004, and a chassis M3019 (see FIG. 1) housed in the exterior member. 2).

  Further, one end of the discharge tray M1004 is rotatably held by the lower case M1001, and the opening formed on the front surface of the lower case M1001 can be opened and closed by the rotation. For this reason, when executing the recording operation, the discharge tray M1004 is rotated to the front side to open the opening so that the recording sheets can be discharged and the discharged recording sheets P are sequentially stacked. It has come to be able to do.

  One end of the access cover M1003 is rotatably held by the upper case M1002, and an opening formed on the upper surface can be opened and closed. By opening the access cover M1003, the recording head cartridge H1000 or the ink tank H1900 stored in the main body can be replaced. Although not specifically shown here, when the access cover M1003 is opened and closed, the protrusion formed on the back surface rotates the cover opening and closing lever, and the rotation position of the lever is detected by a micro switch or the like. Thus, the open / closed state of the access cover can be detected.

  On the upper surface of the rear part of the upper case M1002, a power key E0018 and a resume key E0019 are provided so that they can be pressed, and an LED E0020 is provided. When the power key E0018 is pressed, the LED E0020 is turned on to inform the operator that recording is possible. Further, the LED E0020 has various display functions such as blinking method and color change, and informing the operator of printer troubles. When the trouble is solved, the recording is resumed by pressing the resume key E0019.

[Recording mechanism]
Next, the recording operation mechanism in the present embodiment that is housed and held in the printer apparatus main body M1000 will be described.

  The recording operation mechanism in this embodiment includes an automatic feeding unit M3022, a transport unit M3029, a recording unit, and a recovery unit M5000. The automatic feeding unit M3022 automatically feeds the recording paper P into the apparatus main body. Further, the transport unit M3029 guides the recording paper P sent out one by one from the automatic feeding unit to a predetermined recording position, and guides the recording paper P from the recording position to the discharge unit M3030. Further, the recording unit performs desired recording on the recording paper P conveyed to the recording position, and the recovery unit performs recovery processing on the recording unit and the like.

(Recording part)
Here, the recording unit will be described. The recording unit includes a carriage M4001 that is movably supported by a carriage shaft M4021, and a recording head cartridge H1000 that is detachably mounted on the carriage M4001.

  First, a recording head cartridge used in the recording unit will be described with reference to FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 3A, the recording head cartridge H1000 in this embodiment includes an ink tank H1900 that stores ink, and a recording head H1001 that discharges ink supplied from the ink tank H1900 from nozzles according to recording information. And have. The recording head H1001 adopts a so-called cartridge system that is detachably mounted on the carriage M4001.

  In the recording head cartridge H1000 shown here, for example, black, light cyan, light magenta, cyan, magenta and yellow ink tanks H1900 are prepared as ink tanks in order to enable high-quality color recording with photographic tone. Has been. Further, as shown in FIG. 3B, each color ink tank H1900 is detachable from the recording head H1001.

  Further, the recording cartridge H1000 is provided with an optical inter-sheet sensor 107 as a distance measuring unit. The paper gap sensor 107 includes an irradiation unit that emits light toward the surface of the recording medium or the platen, and a light receiving unit that receives reflected light reflected on the surface of the recording medium or the platen. Output data corresponding to the distance from the platen can be sent.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a schematic block configuration of a control system of the ink jet recording apparatus applied in the present embodiment. The recording apparatus receives recording information as a control signal from the host computer 300. The recording information is temporarily stored in the input / output interface 301 in the recording apparatus, and at the same time, converted into data that can be processed in the recording apparatus, and input to the CPU 302 that also serves as a recording head drive signal supply unit. The CPU 302 processes data input to the CPU 302 using peripheral units such as the RAM 304 based on a control program stored in the ROM 303, and converts the data into image data that can be recorded by the recording apparatus.

  In addition, the CPU 302 generates drive data for moving the recording medium and the recording head H1001 in synchronization with the image data in order to record the image data at an appropriate position on the recording medium. E0001 is driven. In particular, the drive data for the carriage is generated in the CPU 302 based on the distance information from the paper gap sensor 107 and the recording information from the host computer 300, and is transmitted to the carriage motor E0001 via the motor driver 306 and controlled. An image is formed at the same timing.

Example 1
First, a first embodiment according to the characteristic configuration of the present invention will be described.

  FIG. 5 shows an example of the head configuration and arrangement used in this embodiment. Here, a total of six types corresponding to four colors of normal C (cyan), M (magenta), Y (yellow), and K (black) or light C (light cyan) and light M (light magenta). The recording head is mounted on the carriage. The recording heads are so-called side-by-side recording heads arranged in a line along the main scanning direction (carriage movement direction). Each recording head is formed with two nozzle rows along a direction (vertical direction) orthogonal to the main scanning direction, and each nozzle row has a large number (for example, 384) of nozzles at a pitch of 600 dpi. It is arranged. However, since the two nozzle rows in each recording head are shifted in the arrangement of the nozzles by half a pixel, each recording head has nozzles arranged substantially vertically in a pitch of 1200 dpi. Is the same.

  The printing apparatus according to the present embodiment employs a multi-pass printing method in which an image is formed by scanning a carriage a plurality of times in the same predetermined area. Multi-pass printing is a printing method that can suppress density unevenness due to slight differences in the ejection amount and ejection direction of ink for each nozzle by forming an image using a plurality of nozzles in one line. In particular, in the first embodiment, the number of recording scans (pass number) for scanning the carriage to form an image on the same predetermined area is set to six. Note that forming an image with the six recording scans is also referred to as six-pass recording.

  In this embodiment, for the same number of passes (6-pass printing), a print mode for recording on plain paper having a relatively low ink absorbability and a tendency to cause cockling, and a cock mode with a relatively high ink absorption performance A print mode is used for recording on glossy paper that is less prone to ring. When the user himself / herself selects the medium to be used by the host computer, the carriage is moved up and down according to the type of the medium, and the distance between the surface (head face surface) on which the ejection port of the recording head is formed and the surface of the recording medium ( Gap, also called paper space). The carriage is moved up and down by driving a carriage lifting / lowering motor (not shown). In this embodiment, the carriage automatically moves up and down according to the type of media input by the printer driver. When plain paper is input by the printer driver, the paper interval is adjusted to 2.3 mm, and when glossy paper is input, the paper interval is adjusted to 1.3 mm.

  Further, in the printing mode in this embodiment, the carriage moving speed is set so that white stripes caused by end deviation and wind-like image defects caused by satellite ink do not occur. For example, in the case of 6-pass printing on plain paper (2.3 mm between paper sheets), it is 25 inches / sec. On the other hand, when glossy paper with little cockling is used, the gap between the papers is adjusted to 1.3 mm, so that white streaks and wind-like image defects are visually inconspicuous, and the carriage moving speed is 50 inches / sec. It becomes possible to drive with.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining the determination process of the carriage moving speed on glossy paper in the control system in the printing apparatus.

  When media type selection information is input from the host computer (S1001), the carriage raising / lowering motor is driven (S1002), the carriage M4001 is automatically raised / lowered, and the optical paper gap sensor 107 measures the paper gap. When it is determined that the measured value sent from the paper gap sensor is 1.3 mm (S1003), the carriage lifting motor stops (S1004), and the optical paper gap sensor indicates that the paper gap is 1.3 mm. The data is sent to the CPU 302. The CPU 302 determines the carriage moving speed by referring to the table of the inter-paper distance and the multi-pass number built in the ROM based on the measured value between the papers and the multi-pass number input from the host computer (S1005). (S1006). Further, the CPU 302 transfers carriage drive data to the motor driver.

  FIG. 9 is a list of evaluation results for evaluating the effects of the present invention. In the conventional example, the evaluation result in the plain paper mode is shown. In the print mode, the paper interval is 2.3 mm and the carriage moving speed is 25 inch / sec in 6-pass printing.

  The evaluation items are white streaks due to edge shading and wind-like unevenness due to satellite ink. The evaluation was performed using a solid image with 100% duty printing for each color, and after evaluating each color, an average of the evaluation results for six colors was taken. The evaluation points are five grades of ◎, ○, △, ×, XX, ◎ to ○ are visually indistinguishable levels, △ is a conspicuous level at a clear viewing distance of 30 cm, and XX to XX are clear. The level was conspicuous at a distance of 1 m. At the same time, the time from the start of printing to the end of printing of one A4 size paper is measured and written in each evaluation.

  In the conventional example, since the printing mode is set to plain paper, the paper interval is as wide as 2.3 mm, and the carriage movement speed is set to 25 inches / sec because it is easily affected by edge deviation and satellite ink. In this case, the printing time for one sheet of A4 size paper was 48 seconds.

  On the other hand, according to the embodiment of the present invention, the paper interval is automatically adjusted according to the media type selection information. In the case of glossy paper, there is almost no cockling, so the paper interval is adjusted to 1.3 mm. it can. FIG. 9 shows an evaluation when 6-pass printing is performed in the same manner as in the conventional example when the carriage moving speed is increased from 25 inch / sec to 50 inch / sec, 70 inch / sec. The result is shown. When the carriage moving speed is 25 inches / sec, the paper interval is narrower than that of the conventional example (2.3 mm → 1.3 mm). Was higher than the conventional example. In this case, the printing time for one A4 size sheet is 48 seconds as in the conventional example. When the carriage moving speed is set to 50 inch / sec, although it is slightly affected by the edge deflection and satellite ink as compared with the conventional example, the distance between the sheets is set to 1.3 mm. The level was the same as in the example. The printing time for one A4 size sheet is 29 seconds because the carriage moving speed is increased. Here, the evaluation result when the carriage moving speed is increased to 70 inches / sec is greatly affected by the edge deviation and satellite ink even when the sheet interval is set to 1.3 mm, and the evaluation is worse than the conventional example. It has become a level. Therefore, in this embodiment, when the user selects 6-pass printing with glossy paper, the time required for printing is set to 50 carriage / sec based on the gap between sheets (1.3 mm). The image quality can be shortened from 48 seconds to 29 seconds, and an image quality equivalent to that of the conventional example can be obtained.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the moving speed of the carriage is optimized based on the detection result by the paper interval sensor provided in the carriage and the number of passes obtained from the printer driver. Achieves high image quality optimal for the number of multi-passes, and enables higher-speed recording.

  In this embodiment, a recording apparatus provided with an automatic sheet interval adjusting mechanism that automatically moves the carriage up and down based on the media type information sent from the host computer is used. However, if the paper interval itself can be adjusted in multiple stages, the user can adjust the paper gap using a paper gap lever, etc., and send the paper gap distance information using a position sensor that detects the position. Even if it exists, the effect is not limited.

  In this embodiment, the media type information is sent from the host computer. However, a configuration in which the sheet interval is adjusted based on the media type automatically detected by the media sensor may be used. That is, as long as a mechanism capable of discriminating the type of media is provided, the effect is not limited regardless of the configuration.

(Example 2)
In this embodiment, when glossy paper is used as in the first embodiment, the carriage moving speed is controlled except when the number of multi-passes sent from the host computer is two-pass printing. A recording apparatus having the same form as in Example 1 was used.

  FIG. 10 is a list of evaluation results obtained by evaluating the effects in the present example with the same evaluation contents as those in the first example. As a conventional example, the evaluation result when the number of multi-passes is 6-pass printing is also shown. In the case of 6-pass printing, white streaks and wind-like image defects are not visually noticeable, so the carriage movement speed can be controlled to 50 inches / sec, and the throughput is 29 seconds when printing one A4 size sheet. It is the result. On the other hand, when two-pass printing is performed, white streaks and wind-like image defects are visually noticeable. Therefore, when driving at 50 inches / sec as in the conventional example, the evaluation result is Δ level. Become. In this case, by setting the carriage moving speed to 40 inches / sec, the evaluation result becomes a circle level, and it is possible to improve white stripes and wind-like image defects and achieve an optimum throughput (13 seconds). Therefore, in this embodiment, when the user selects 2-pass printing with glossy paper, the paper interval is automatically set to 1.3 mm, and the carriage moving speed is set to 40 inches / sec based on the information. To do. Therefore, it is possible to suppress the occurrence of image defects and increase the throughput from 29 seconds to 13 seconds.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, even when the number of multipaths determined by the host computer is changed, by adjusting the carriage moving speed, the media type and the number of multipaths can be adjusted. Achieving optimum image quality and further high-speed recording.

  In this embodiment, a recording apparatus in which the carriage moving speed is controlled from 50 inch / sec to 40 inch / sec in the case of 6-pass printing and 2-pass printing on glossy paper that is difficult to cause cockling is used. Similarly, for plain paper and other media that tend to cause cockling, it is only necessary to control the carriage movement speed according to the optimal image quality and speed according to the paper interval and the number of passes. The effect is not limited by the above.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an external perspective view for explaining an embodiment of an ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention. It is a perspective view which shows the state which removed the exterior member of the printer shown in FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a recording head cartridge used in a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a recording head control block according to the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a configuration of a recording head used in the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram viewed from a plane direction of a phenomenon that ink dots are generated at an end portion of a recording head. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a phenomenon that ink dots are generated at an end portion of a recording head when viewed from the front side of the recording head. It is a flowchart which shows the determination flow of the carriage moving speed in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is an evaluation result table | surface which shows the effect in the 1st Embodiment application of this invention. It is an evaluation result table | surface which shows the effect in the 2nd Embodiment application of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

M1000 device main body M1003 access cover M1004 discharge tray M3001 LF roller M3019 chassis M3022 automatic feeding unit M3029 transport unit M3030 discharge unit M4001 carriage M4021 carriage shaft M5000 recovery system E0001 carriage motor E0002 LF motor E 0018 power key E0018 power key E0019
H1000 print head cartridge H1001 print head H1900 ink tank 300 host computer 301 input / output interface 302 CPU
303 ROM
304 RAM
305 Motor driver 307 Head driver 107 Paper gap sensor 108 Carriage lift motor

Claims (3)

By nozzle that discharges ink moves the recording heads arranged in a predetermined direction in a direction different from the predetermined direction by the carriage, an ink jet recording apparatus for recording an image on a recording medium,
An identification means for at least identifying whether the type of recording medium used for recording is plain paper or glossy paper;
When the identification means identifies the plain paper, the interval between the recording head and the recording medium is set to a first distance, and when the identification means identifies the glossy paper, First setting means for setting the interval to a second distance smaller than the first distance;
Detection means provided on the carriage, including an irradiating unit that irradiates light toward the surface of the recording medium and a light receiving unit that receives reflected light reflected by the recording medium, for detecting the interval;
Adjusting means for adjusting the position of the recording head with respect to the recording medium so that the value detected by the detecting means is the interval set by the first setting means;
Second setting means for setting the number of passes, which is the number of movements of the recording head required to complete an image of a predetermined area on the recording medium;
Storage means for storing a table that associates the moving speed of the carriage when recording an image on the recording medium for each combination of the interval and the number of passes;
Based on the interval set by the first setting means and the number of passes set by the second setting means, the carriage is moved at the moving speed obtained by referring to the table stored in the storage means. Control means for controlling to move and record,
Have
In the table, when the number of passes is the same, the moving speed is higher when recording on the glossy paper than when recording on the plain paper, and the type of the recording medium is the same. In this case, the ink jet recording apparatus is characterized in that the moving speed increases as the number of passes set by the second setting means increases . The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising an acquisition unit configured to acquire information regarding the type of the recording medium and information regarding the number of passes transmitted from a host device connected to the inkjet recording apparatus. The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a media sensor that detects a type of the recording medium .

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