JP6169918B2 - Inkjet recording device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus that prints characters, numbers, symbols, figures, barcodes, and the like with printing dots ejected on a substrate to be printed conveyed by a conveyor.

  Inkjet recording apparatuses are widely used for printing characters such as production lot numbers, production dates, and expiration dates on products. As the printing control of the ink jet recording apparatus, since the cycle of the generated ink particles is determined by the nozzle driving conditions, when printing the required print character width at a constant transport speed, one vertical column It is necessary to set the total number of ink particles in the main body of the inkjet recording apparatus in advance.

  In addition, there are various conveyors depending on the type of industry, and among them, there are many conveyors whose conveyor speed fluctuates, so when printing a fixed printing character width, use a rotary encoder etc. to adjust the conveyor speed. There is a print control for generating a corresponding pulse signal, taking the pulse signal into an ink jet recording apparatus, and controlling the print timing based on the taken signal. Therefore, in order to perform printing control based on the pulse signal input from the rotary encoder, it is necessary to calculate the printing conditions that can follow the pulse signal manually and to set the total number of ink particles for one vertical column of printed characters in advance. There is.

  Here, the total number of ink particles for one vertical column of printed characters is the dot pattern of the character, the number of printing stages, uncharged particles inserted between charged particles (hereinafter referred to as ink particle usage rate), and ink for one vertical column. This is determined by uncharged particles (hereinafter referred to as print character width) in which a necessary number of particles are inserted after the charging is completed.

  Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-179026) discloses a sensor signal for detecting a print object in order to minimize the labor and time for setting work when using a rotary encoder in an inkjet recording apparatus. It has a circuit for inputting and a circuit for inputting a pulse signal generated by a rotary encoder attached to the conveyor through which the object to be printed flows. It has a function to input and set the length of the object to be printed. The speed of the conveyor is calculated from the signal and the set length of the print object, and the number of pulse signals per unit time of the rotary encoder is measured to determine the preset print contents and print conditions. In addition, the input rotary encoder pulse signal is automatically divided by the optimum value to generate the print timing. It is described that comprises a capability.

JP 2009-179026 A

  In the ink jet recording apparatus, when printing a fixed print character width on a printing object, the operator must not only determine the character content and the number of print stages but also set the ink particle usage rate and the print character width. Therefore, it is necessary for the operator to make print settings while performing a print test in order to understand the effects of the ink particle usage rate, print character width, and settings on print quality and print speed. If the setting is not correct, there are problems that the printing request cannot be satisfied, the printing quality is deteriorated, an error occurs, or normal printing cannot be continued. For this reason, the difficulty and troublesome setting work becomes a heavy burden on the operator until accurate printing can be performed.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet recording apparatus that solves the above-described problems and enables a novice operator to perform print settings accurately and easily.

  In order to solve the above problems, for example, the configuration described in the claims is adopted. The present application includes a plurality of means for solving the above-described problems. To give an example, a nozzle body that generates ink ejected from a nozzle into ink particles, a charging electrode that charges the ink particles, A deflecting electrode for deflecting the charged ink particles, adding charge to the ink particles, flying in the deflection electric field to vertically deflect the printed material, and moving the printed material in a direction substantially perpendicular to the vertical direction of the ink particles. In an ink jet recording apparatus for forming characters by printing, a print character width and a belt conveyor speed can be input and set. From the print character width and the conveyor speed, the print time of one vertical line of print characters and the ink particles of one vertical line can be set. The number is calculated, and the ink particle usage rate and the print character width are automatically set.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to minimize the labor and time required for the operation for performing the print setting of the ink jet recording apparatus, and it is possible to prevent problems caused by setting errors, thereby minimizing the downtime of the conveyor. To the limit.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an ink jet recording apparatus according to the present invention. Fig. 3 shows a printing processing flowchart of the present invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The present invention is not limited to the illustrated example.

Example 1
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention. In the block diagram of FIG. 1, 101 is an MPU (microprocessor unit) for controlling the entire inkjet recording apparatus, 102 is a RAM (random access memory) for temporarily storing data in the inkjet recording apparatus, and 103 is a belt conveyor. ROM (read only memory) that stores software and data for calculating speed and printing speed, 104 is a panel for inputting setting data group such as head movement distance, printing distance, writing position, and printing contents, 120 is a panel interface, Stands between the panel 104 and the bus line 109 to mediate the exchange of information, 105 is a print control circuit for controlling the printing operation of the ink jet recording apparatus, 121 is a video RAM, 122 is a print object sensor, and 123 is a print object. Object detection circuit, 106 is a frequency dividing circuit, 07 is a character signal generation circuit for converting the print content into a character signal, 108 is an input circuit for inputting a rotary encoder pulse signal, 109 is a bus line for sending data, 110 is a print head of an ink jet recording apparatus, and 111 is for ejecting ink. Nozzle, 112 is a charging electrode that applies ink to particles ejected from nozzle 111, 113 is a deflection electrode that deflects charged ink particles, 114 is a gutter that collects ink particles that are not used for printing, 115 is a pump that supplies ink collected from the gutter to the nozzles again, 116 is a printing object to be printed, 117 is a belt conveyor that conveys the printing object, and 118 is a rotary encoder that is connected to the belt conveyor 117. .

  Next, a printing method will be described with reference to the block diagram of the ink jet recording apparatus shown in FIG. First, when information such as print contents and print specifications is input on the panel 104 via the panel interface 120, the MPU 101 creates video data for charging the ink particles according to the print information by a program recorded in the ROM 103. And stored in the video RAM 121 via the bus line 109.

  When the printing object sensor 122 detects the printing object 116, a print start command reaches the MPU 101 through the printing object detection circuit 123. The MPU 101 sends the video data recorded in the video RAM 121 to the character signal generation circuit 107 via the bus line 109. The character signal generation circuit 107 converts the sent video data into a charging signal.

  The print control circuit 105 controls the timing of sending this charging signal to the charging electrode 112 via the bus line 109. The ink ejected from the nozzle 111 is turned into particles in the charging electrode 112, receives the electric charge, is deflected by flying through the electric field formed by the deflecting electrode 113, and the ink particles fly and adhere to the printing material 116 and print. Is done.

  At that time, the deflection is performed according to the charge amount of the ink particles. Ink particles having a large charge amount have a large deflection amount, and particles having a small charge amount have a small deflection amount. Ink particles having a charging charge signal having a large charge amount are largely deflected, jump over the gutter 114, fly to and adhere to the printed material 116, print, and form characters, while the ink particles are not used for printing. Since the amount of charge is small, it cannot jump over the gutter 114 and is collected by the gutter 114 and supplied again to the nozzle 111 by the pump 115. With the above printing method, the ink jet recording apparatus detects the printing object 116 with the printing object detection sensor 112 and prints on the printing object 116.

  According to the present invention, according to the print request, for example, the print contents and the print character width are set in advance on the input panel 104 of the ink jet recording apparatus and stored in the RAM 102 for the substrate to be conveyed conveyed on the conveyor. The print setting program operating on the MPU 101 sets the ink particle usage rate, print character width, and the like from the input data and the belt conveyor speed.

  Next, a printing process flowchart of the present invention is shown in FIG. 2 and will be described. In FIG. 2, first, it is selected whether or not to use the automatic setting mode for print settings (step S1). If the automatic setting mode is not selected (NO), this process ends. Here, the automatic setting mode calculates the number of ink particles for one vertical printing line from the speed of the belt conveyor and the printing character width, and based on the preset printing contents and the printing character dot number, The optimum values of usage rate and print character width are derived.

  Next, when the automatic setting mode is selected (YES), it is selected whether or not to use the speed tracking mode of the belt conveyor (step S2). When the speed following mode of the belt conveyor is not used (NO), a speed value of the belt conveyor that actually performs printing, for example, 180 m / min is input (step S3). The case where the speed following mode of the belt conveyor is used (YES) will be described later.

Next, after inputting the speed value of the belt conveyor, printing request data such as printing contents and printing character width are inputted (step S4). Here, for example, a character to be printed of “Best before date 10.20” (9 characters in total), a dot pattern (for example, 5 × 5) constituting the character, and a character width (for example, 22.5 mm) are set. To do. The character print width between columns can be calculated from the input dot pattern, print character width, and belt conveyor speed.
That is, the total number of print lines = the number of horizontal dots in the dot pattern (5) × the number of print characters (9) = 45 lines (Equation 1)
Character width between columns = print character width (22.5 mm) / total number of print columns (45) = 0.5 mm (2)
Further, the required time per one-line printing can be calculated from the number of ink particles generated per second. (Step S5). That is, one ink particle creation time = time (1 sec) / excitation frequency (75.4 kHz) = 13.26 μs (Equation 3)
Time per printing of one row = character width between rows (0.5 mm) / conveyor speed (180 m / min) = 167 μs (Equation 4)
Subsequently, the number of ink particles in one vertical column is calculated from the calculated time required for printing in one column (step S6).

Further, the number of ink particles in one row = time per one row printing (167 μs) / one ink particle creation time (13.26 μs) = 13 (Equation 5)
From the calculated number of ink particles in one column, the character width for adjusting the ink particle usage rate and the interval between columns can be calculated (step S7).

Ink particle usage rate = number of ink particles in one row (13) / number of vertical dots in the dot pattern (5) = 2 (Equation 6)
Character width = Number of ink particles in one row (13) mod Number of vertical dots in dot pattern (5) = 3 ... (Equation 7)
From the above results, the ink particle usage rate and the character width can be calculated, and can be automatically set.
Here, mod is an arithmetic operator, and the remainder obtained by dividing “the number of ink particles in one column” by “the number of vertical dots in the dot pattern” is defined as “character width”. The ink particle usage rate means the ratio of particles used for printing. For example, when the ink particle usage rate is 3, the first ink particle is charged and used for printing, and the remaining second particle size is used. The third ink particle is not charged, is not used for printing, and is collected with gutter. By doing so, the interval between the charged particles is increased, the influence of the Coulomb force is reduced, and if the ink particle usage rate is increased, the printing quality is improved, but the printing time for one row is extended.

  The character width is used to adjust the horizontal direction of the character to be printed. For example, when the character width is 2 (pieces), after all the ink particles for printing are charged for each column, the ink particles that are not charged are removed. Two are inserted at the end of the column to adjust the interval between the columns.

Next, in step S2, if it is selected to use the speed follow-up mode (YES), the speed of the belt conveyor that performs printing is measured by the rotary encoder, and one pulse cycle of the rotary encoder is calculated (step S8).
That is, 1 pulse cycle = rotary encoder operating time / number of rotary encoder pulses (Equation 8)
Next, print request data such as print contents to be printed and print character width are input (step S9).
For example, in the same example as described above, the character to be printed is “expiration date 10.20” (the total number of print characters is 9 characters), the dot pattern constituting the character is 5 × 5, and the character print width is 22.5 mm. Set to.

Next, the number of ink particles in one row can be calculated from the input dot pattern, print character width, and belt conveyor speed (step S10).
That is, one ink particle creation time = time (1 sec) / excitation frequency (75.4 kHz) = 13.26 μs (Equation 9)
Number of ink particles in one row = time per one row printing (167 μs) / 1 piece ink creation time (13.26 μs) = 13 (Equation 10)
Next, the input character dot pattern, one pulse period of the rotary encoder, and the frequency division ratio are set, and the ink particle usage rate can be calculated from these (step S11).
That is, ink particle usage rate = number of ink particles in one row (13) / number of vertical dots in the dot pattern (5) = 2 (Equation 11)
Character width = Number of ink particles in one row (13) mod Number of vertical dots in dot pattern (5) = 3 ... (Equation 12)
Based on the calculation result, the ink particle usage rate and the character width can be automatically set (step S12).

  Also, by selecting the speed following mode in the printing process, the ink particle usage rate, character width, and rotary encoder frequency division ratio that are automatically set according to the production environment can be finely adjusted. Therefore, it is possible to provide a printing system that can be used by both skilled operators and first-time operators.

101 ... MPU (microprocessor unit)
102 ... RAM (Random Access Memory)
103 ROM (read-only memory)
104 Panel 120 Panel interface 105 Print control circuit 121 Video RAM
122: Printed object sensor 123 ... Printed object detection circuit 106 ... Frequency dividing circuit 107 ... Character signal generating circuit 108 ... Rotary encoder pulse signal input circuit 109 ... Bus line 110 ... Print head 111 ... Nozzle 112 ... Charged electrode 113 ... Deflection electrode 114 ... Gutter 115 ... Pump 116 ... Substrate 117 ... Belt conveyor 118 ... Rotary encoder

Claims (2)

A nozzle body that generates ink ejected from the nozzles into ink particles, a charging electrode that charges the ink particles, and a deflection electrode that deflects the charged ink particles, and adds charge to the ink particles; In an ink jet recording apparatus that forms characters by flying in a deflecting electric field and vertically deflecting, and moving a printing material relatively perpendicularly to the vertical direction of ink particles,
It is possible to select a speed following mode of a conveyor that conveys the printing object,
When the speed following mode is not selected, the printing character width and the conveyor speed are input and set in the panel, and the printing time of one vertical line of printing characters and the vertical ink particles are determined from the printing character width and the conveyor speed. Calculate the number with MPU, automatically set the ink particle usage rate and character width,
When the speed tracking mode is selected, the conveyor speed is calculated from the pulse signal of the rotary encoder connected to the conveyor, and is set in advance, or the print character width and print content and print dots input to the panel An inkjet recording apparatus characterized in that a required time for printing one line is calculated from a pattern, and a frequency division ratio and ink particle usage rate of the rotary encoder are automatically set . The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
An ink jet recording apparatus characterized in that the ink particle usage rate, character width, and rotary encoder frequency division value automatically set according to the production environment can be changed.

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