JP6506620B2 - Recording apparatus and recording head temperature control method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and a printing head driving method, and more particularly, to a printing apparatus for printing an image on a printing medium by an inkjet printing head, and a temperature control method of the printing head.

  The viscosity of the ink used in the ink jet recording apparatus increases in a low temperature environment, and the ink volume at the time of ejecting the ink from the recording head decreases. In addition, there is a problem that an ink discharge failure occurs.

  In order to avoid such a phenomenon, in the inkjet recording apparatus, control is performed to heat the recording head to a temperature range in which the ink discharge from the recording head is optimal before and during the recording operation. Means for applying a short pulse to drive the heater board mounted on the recording head so as not to discharge the ink to heat the recording head, and a sub-heater provided separately from the heater board There is a means to drive the head to keep it warm. By using these heating means, the ink temperature is heated to a temperature range suitable for recording.

  On the other hand, there is also a demand for control capable of rapidly heating the recording head to a temperature range suitable for recording in order to improve the recording throughput, and further capable of maintaining the temperature. In addition, driving the heater for ink discharge consumes a large amount of power, and since the sub-heater is also a resistor, driving the heater increases the amount of power consumption. Therefore, there is a need for heater control that can suppress an increase in the power supply capacity of the recording apparatus and can rapidly heat the recording head to a target temperature range.

  For example, in the inkjet recording apparatus having the ink discharge heater and the sub heater, the cited reference 1 proposes a configuration in which the drive pulses of the ink discharge heater and the sub heater are intentionally shifted in order to reduce the power consumption and prevent the increase of the power supply capacity. doing.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-132618

  However, in the conventional technique as proposed in Patent Document 1, in order not to increase the power supply capacity, it is necessary to intentionally shift the drive pulse so as not to simultaneously drive the discharge heater and the sub heater. Therefore, it is not possible to simultaneously perform short pulse heating using the ink discharge heater performed before recording and heating by the sub heater, and it takes time to heat the recording head to the target temperature.

  In addition, since the ink discharge heater is driven during recording, it is difficult to drive the sub heater also in terms of power supply capacity. For this reason, during switching of the carriage from the forward scan to the backward scan, or during switching from the backward scan to the forward scan, the sub heater is driven to heat the print head until the target temperature is reached. Takes time. This causes a problem of reducing the recording throughput.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described conventional example, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a recording apparatus capable of performing appropriate temperature control of a recording head in a short time and a temperature control method of the recording head.

  In order to achieve the above object, the recording apparatus of the present invention is configured as follows.

That is, a first heater provided to eject ink corresponding to each of a plurality of recording elements, and a second heater provided to heat the recording head separately from the first heater are provided. using the recording head, a recording apparatus for recording by out-discharge ink onto a recording medium, used for driving the second heater, a storage unit for storing a plurality of driving signals having different duty, Calculation means for calculating the first power used for recording by driving the first heater based on the input means for inputting the operation mode, and the operation mode inputted by the input means, and the calculation means Used to heat the recording head by driving the first heater by inputting the first electric power calculated by the control unit and a pulse that does not cause ink discharge to the first heater. Selection means for selecting an appropriate drive signal from the plurality of drive signals stored in the storage means based on the second power to be used, and recording of the recording head by the drive signal selected by the selection means The control unit may control the heating of the recording head by driving the second heater during operation and during a time when the recording head is not performing a recording operation .

According to another aspect of the present invention, the first heater provided to eject the ink corresponding to each of the plurality of recording elements and the first heater are provided separately for heating the recording head. using the recording head having a second heater that is, a temperature control method of the recording head in the recording apparatus for recording out ejection ink onto a recording medium, an input step of inputting an operation mode, the A calculation step of calculating a first power used for recording by driving the first heater based on an operation mode input in the input step; and the first power calculated in the calculation step Based on the second electric power used to heat the recording head by driving the first heater by inputting a pulse that does not cause ink discharge to the first heater. And a selection step of selecting an appropriate drive signal from a plurality of drive signals having different duties, which are used to drive the second heater stored in the memory, and the drive signal selected in the selection step. Controlling the temperature of the recording head by controlling the second heater to heat the recording head during the recording operation and during the time when the recording head is not performing the recording operation; Prepare.

  Therefore, according to the present invention, the recording head can be heated more quickly without increasing the power supply capacity.

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view showing an outline of a configuration of an inkjet recording apparatus that is a representative embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows the control structure of the inkjet recording device shown in FIG. FIG. 2 is a view showing a nozzle array configuration of a head chip mounted on a recording head. It is a figure which shows the PWM drive Duty setting sequence of the sub heater by recording mode. It is a figure which shows the duty table which shows the PWM drive Duty ratio of the sub heater hold | maintained at memory. 5 is a time chart of various operations relating to temperature control of the recording head. It is a block diagram showing composition of head rank acquisition. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement of a head rank acquisition.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In this specification, “recording” (hereinafter also referred to as “printing”) means not only when forming significant information such as characters and figures, but also when images are widely recorded on recording media regardless of significance. The case of forming a pattern, a pattern or the like or processing a medium is also shown. In addition, it does not matter whether it is manifested so that humans can perceive it visually.

  Also, "recording medium" refers not only to paper used in general recording devices, but also widely to those that can accept ink, such as cloth, plastic film, metal plate, glass, ceramics, wood, leather, etc. It shall be.

  In addition, “ink” should be interpreted broadly as in the above definition of “recording”, and by being applied on the recording medium, formation of an image, a pattern, a pattern, etc. or processing of the recording medium, or ink Represents a liquid that can be subjected to the treatment of Examples of the treatment of the ink include coagulation or insolubilization of a colorant in the ink applied to the recording medium.

  Furthermore, the term "recording element (or nozzle)" generally refers to an ejection port or a liquid path communicating with the ejection port unless otherwise specified, and an element (for example, a heater or a resistor) that generates energy used for ink ejection. I shall say.

  The “head chip” used below does not indicate a simple base made of a silicon semiconductor, but indicates a configuration in which elements, wirings, and the like are provided.

<Overview of Recording Apparatus and Recording Head (FIGS. 1 to 3)>
FIG. 1 is an external perspective view showing an outline of the configuration of a printing apparatus for printing using an inkjet printing head (hereinafter, printing head) as a typical embodiment of the present invention.

  As shown in FIG. 1, an ink jet recording apparatus (hereinafter referred to as a recording apparatus) 1 mounts an ink jet recording head (hereinafter referred to as a recording head) 3 for discharging ink to perform recording according to the ink jet method. Make a recording by reciprocating in the direction. A recording medium P such as a recording sheet is fed through the sheet feeding mechanism 5 and conveyed to the recording position, and the recording head 3 discharges the ink from the recording head 3 to the recording medium P to perform recording.

  Not only the recording head 3 is mounted on the carriage 2 of the recording apparatus 1, but also an ink tank 6 for storing the ink supplied to the recording head 3 is mounted. The ink tank 6 is detachable from the carriage 2.

  The recording apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1 is capable of color recording, and for that purpose, the carriage 2 contains four inks of magenta (M), cyan (C), yellow (Y) and black (K) respectively. The ink cartridge is mounted. These four ink cartridges are independently removable.

  The recording head 3 of this embodiment employs an ink jet system in which ink is ejected using thermal energy. For this reason, an electrothermal converter is provided. The electrothermal transducer is provided corresponding to each of the ejection openings, and the pulse voltage is applied to the corresponding electrothermal transducer according to the recording signal to eject the ink from the corresponding ejection outlet. The recording apparatus is not limited to the serial type recording apparatus described above, and a so-called full line type in which a recording head (line head) having discharge ports arranged in the width direction of the recording medium is disposed in the conveyance direction of the recording medium. The present invention is also applicable to the recording device of

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a control configuration of the recording apparatus shown in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the controller 600 includes an MPU 601, a ROM 602, a special purpose integrated circuit (ASIC) 603, a RAM 604, a system bus 605, an A / D converter 606, and the like. Here, the ROM 602 stores a program corresponding to a control sequence to be described later, a required table, and other fixed data. The ASIC 603 generates control signals for control of the carriage motor M 1, control of the transport motor M 2, and control of the print head 3. The RAM 604 is used as a development area of image data, a work area for program execution, and the like. A system bus 605 mutually connects the MPU 601, the ASIC 603, and the RAM 604 to exchange data. The A / D converter 606 inputs an analog signal from a sensor group described below, A / D converts it, and supplies a digital signal to the MPU 601.

  Further, in FIG. 2, reference numeral 610 denotes a host apparatus corresponding to the host or MFP shown in FIG. 1 as a source of supplying image data. Image data, commands, status, and the like are transmitted and received between the host device 610 and the recording device 1 by packet communication via an interface (I / F) 611. This packet communication will be described later. A USB interface may be further provided as an interface 611 separately from the network interface so that bit data and raster data serially transferred from the host can be received.

  Further, reference numeral 620 denotes a switch group, which includes a power switch 621, a print switch 622, a recovery switch 623 and the like.

  Reference numeral 630 denotes a sensor group for detecting the apparatus state, which includes a position sensor 631, a temperature sensor 632, and the like. In this embodiment, a photosensor for detecting the remaining amount of ink is also provided. Details of this photosensor will be described later.

  A carriage motor driver 640 drives a carriage motor M1 for reciprocally scanning the carriage 2 in the direction of arrow A, and a transport motor driver 642 drives a transport motor M2 for transporting the recording medium P.

  The ASIC 603 transfers data for driving the recording element (heater for ejection) to the recording head while directly accessing the storage area of the RAM 604 during recording scanning by the recording head 3. In addition, the recording apparatus is provided with a display unit including an LCD and an LED as a user interface.

  FIG. 3 is a view showing a nozzle array configuration of a head chip mounted on the recording head 3.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the head chip 201 is provided with four nozzle rows 203, and the nozzles are arranged in a staggered arrangement in each nozzle row. The nozzles are arrayed at a resolution of 600 dpi on both the left and right sides of the staggered array, and printing on both sides is possible at a resolution of 1200 dpi. Magenta (M), cyan (C), yellow (Y) and black (K) are respectively ejected from the nozzles of these four nozzle rows. In the head chip 201, heating sub-heater resistors 202 are divided into two parts so as to surround both sides of the nozzle row. By energizing each of these two sub-heater resistors, the resistor generates heat and heats the entire head chip.

  Then, by controlling the temperature of the entire head chip with this sub heater, it is possible to stabilize the ink discharge from the nozzles.

  Next, an embodiment of print head temperature control in the printing apparatus having the above configuration will be described.

First, the duty setting of the PWM drive signal of the sub heater according to the recording mode will be described. In this embodiment, a PWM drive pulse is applied to the sub heater to control the temperature of the print head. More specifically, among a plurality of PWM drive signals different in duty defined by the ratio of the time for which the sub heater is on (the time for energizing the sub heater) to the period of the PWM drive pulse, one PWM drive signal is Select and apply. In the following description, it is assumed that the period of the PWM driving pulse is T ₀ and the time for turning on the sub heater (time for energizing the sub heater) is T ₁ .

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a duty setting sequence of the PWM drive signal of the sub heater according to the recording mode. In FIG. 4, (a) is a flow of determining the duty ratio of the PWM drive signal of the sub heater when the recording apparatus inputs and records image data. According to this, the operation mode is selected in step S10, and the duty (Duty) table is selected in step S30 in accordance with the selected operation mode. This table will be described later. Then, in step S40, the duty (Duty) ratio of the PWM drive signal of the sub heater during recording is selected from the duty table, and the process shifts to the recording operation. At this point, the recording apparatus 1 is in a recording standby state.

  Further, (b) is a flow of determining a duty ratio when image data for printing is transferred from a host device 610 such as a PC. According to this, in step S15, the data specifying the operation mode of the recording apparatus sent from the external device such as the host apparatus 610 is received, and in step S20, the operation mode of the recording apparatus is determined from the received data. Then, in steps S30 to S40, as described above, the duty ratio in PWM drive of the sub heater during the recording operation is determined. Also in this case, the optimum duty ratio is selected from the table held in the memory.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a duty table indicating the duty ratio of the PWM drive signal of the sub heater held in the memory. In this embodiment, referring to the table shown in FIG. 5, the optimum duty ratio is selected in accordance with the operation mode.

In the example shown in FIG. 5, four different duty ratios are stored in the duty table, and numerical values of 1 to 4 are given as table numbers (No.). FIG. 5 shows duty ratios that are different from the period (T ₀ ) of the PWM drive signal pulse of the sub heater corresponding to the table number with respect to the time (T ₁ ) in which the pulse is turned ON. As can be seen from FIG. 5, the duty ratio gradually decreases to table numbers 1 to 4. Therefore, when Table No. 1 with a high duty ratio is selected, power consumption required for sub heater heating increases, and when Table No. 4 with a low duty ratio is selected, power consumption required for sub heater heating is small. Become. Although FIG. 5 exemplifies patterns of PWM drive signals having four different duty ratios, it is needless to say that patterns of four or more PWM drive signals may be stored.

Therefore, the duty ratio in this embodiment can be defined as the ratio of the time (T ₁ ) during which one pulse (T ₀ ) of the PWM drive signal pulse of the sub heater is on.

  The printing apparatus is usually provided with many operation modes, and the number of ink discharge heaters used changes according to each operation mode. For example, in the monochrome printing mode, only the heaters for discharging black ink are driven, and in the color printing mode, the number of heaters used varies depending on the recording resolution. In the high resolution print mode, the number of heaters increases and power consumption also increases. Also, if the high-speed printing mode is selected, printing is performed with the number of ink discharge heaters used being reduced (that is, power consumption is reduced). Thus, if the number of driving of the ink discharge heater changes, the power consumed by the heater also changes.

  Therefore, in this embodiment, the duty ratio of the PWM drive signal of the sub heater is determined in accordance with the operation mode specified in step S10 or step S15 shown in FIG. Therefore, when an operation mode with high power consumption is selected, the PWM drive signal pulse of the sub heater with a low duty ratio is used. On the other hand, when the operation mode with low power consumption is selected, the PWM drive signal pulse of the sub heater with high duty ratio can be used. Thus, the duty ratio of the PWM drive signal is set so that the sub heater can be driven to the maximum.

  By doing this, it becomes possible to efficiently control the temperature of the recording head using the power efficiently in the recording head to which a certain amount of power is allocated. For example, since ink is not ejected from the recording head 3 during the time period when the carriage movement switches from forward scanning to backward scanning, all the power allocated to the recording head 3 can be used to adjust the temperature of the recording head. . In this case, it is possible to select a duty ratio that can maximally use extra power other than short pulse heating described below and use it for heating the sub heater.

Further, by simultaneously performing the driving of the ink discharge heater and the sub heater heating, it is possible to rapidly heat the print head to a temperature optimum for printing. The power consumption required to drive the ink ejection heater can be determined from calculation depending on image data and the like. Usually, in the design of the recording apparatus and the recording head, the maximum power (HPMAX) assignable to the recording head is predetermined. Therefore, when the power consumption (DP) of the ink discharge heater depending on the image data etc. is calculated, as a result, the maximum power consumption (SHMAX) usable for the sub heater heating is also calculated. Therefore,
SHMAX = HPMAX-DP (1)
The relationship is established.

  Since the drive voltage of the sub heater and the load current at that time are determined, as long as the relationship of the equation (1) is maintained by PWM control of the sub heater, the ink discharge heater and the sub heater can be used without increasing the power supply capacity. Can be driven simultaneously.

  From this, it is possible to perform sub-heater heating without exceeding a predetermined power supply capacity even while the recording head discharges ink and performs recording.

  Next, temperature control of the recording head during the recording operation will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 6 is a time chart of various operations related to temperature control of the recording head.

As shown in FIG. 6, the time taken for the carriage 2 to stop after the forward scanning on the recording medium before the start of printing, and for the backward scanning to be performed again is referred to as a scanning interval. In carriage scanning, the carriage 2 on which the recording head 3 is mounted is ramped up from a stop state, and after reaching a specified speed (v ₁ ), the constant speed operation is performed, and the recording head 3 discharges ink in the section shown in FIG. After completion of one scan, the carriage 2 is ramped down and ramping up in the reverse direction, which is the reverse direction, is started after stopping of the prescribed time (during scan) in consideration of operation stability.

  As can be seen from FIG. 6, a drive pulse having a short pulse width that does not cause ink ejection to the recording elements of the recording head 3 is applied to heat the recording head 3 at times other than the ink ejection of the recording head 3. . This operation is called short pulse heating.

  Further, the short pulse heating can adjust the temperature of the ink discharge heater of the recording head and the ink in the vicinity of the discharge port. As described above, this is to heat the ink discharge heater of each nozzle by giving a pulse of such a length as not discharging ink, and generally, the pulse application frequency is also higher than the heat pulse at the time of recording operation. It has a long cycle. Since the recording head is heated by energizing the ink discharge heater, short pulse heating is not performed during the recording operation, and as can be seen from FIG. 6, it is performed when ramping up, ramping down, and stopping the carriage scan. Be done.

  On the other hand, sub-heater heating is performed by energizing the sub-heater resistor 202 at the duty ratio of the PWM drive signal according to the operation mode. It is possible to selectively energize the two sub heater resistors 202 provided in the head chip 201 of the recording head 3, and the implementation of the electricity is obtained from the output of the temperature detecting diode sensor (not shown) in the head chip. It is determined by the temperature. As shown in FIG. 3, since the sub heater resistor 202 is configured separately from the ink discharge heater, as shown in FIG.

  The timing to execute the short pulse heating and the sub-heater heating is determined based on the output from the head diode sensor acquired at the head temperature confirmation timing. FIG. 6 exemplifies four timings of t = a, t = b, t = c, and t = d as the timings.

  Next, how to adjust the temperature of the recording head will be described in relation to the actual recording operation.

  When a print job is received from the host device 610, the printing apparatus 1 executes an initialization operation prior to the printing operation, but also executes a head temperature confirmation operation. When the head temperature (T) is lower than a predetermined threshold, that is, the head temperature is low, the short pulse heating and the sub heater heating described above are executed and controlled. This operation is determined by the head temperature (T) at that time, and depending on the head temperature, (1) two heating operations are not performed, (2) only either short pulse heating or sub heater heating is performed, (3 ) Selection control such as performing two heating operations is performed. This selection is made in consideration of how the electric power allocated to the recording head can use the electric power available for the heating operation to raise the head temperature to the specified value in a shorter time.

  Referring back to FIG. 6, if the head temperature (T) reaches a specified value at the timing of head temperature confirmation t = a, it is determined that recording is possible, and the movement of the carriage 2 is started. In the example shown in FIG. 6, both short pulse heating and sub-heater heating are performed at t = a. At this point of time, since ink ejection from the recording head 3 is not performed, there is a margin in the power allocated to the recording head, so two operations are simultaneously performed to rapidly heat the head temperature to a specified value. be able to.

  Then, the recording start determination is performed at timing t = b when the recording head 3 reaches the recording start position, and the short pulse heating and the sub heater heating are stopped. As a result, sufficient power can be secured for the ink discharge operation by the recording head 3. As described above, since the sub heater heating can be continuously driven, as suggested in FIG. 6, the sub heater heating can be resumed even during the recording operation.

  For example, in the case of image recording with a small ink ejection amount such as character image printing, if the temperature of the recording head decreases and the recording head falls below the specified value at the timing of head temperature check t = c, subheater heating is restarted. Control to keep the head temperature within the target range. In the case of image recording with a small amount of ink discharge, the amount of power required to drive the recording elements of the recording head 3 to perform ink discharge is small, so even if the power necessary to perform sub-heater heating is secured. be able to.

  When the ink discharge operation is completed and the head temperature does not reach the specified value at the timing of the head temperature confirmation t = d after one scan of the carriage 2 is completed, the heating operation of the recording head is executed. Even in this case, if sub-heater heating is performed during ink ejection, the degree of temperature decrease of the recording head is small, so the head temperature is raised to a specified value by short pulse heating and sub-heater heating operation for shorter time. be able to.

  Therefore, according to the embodiment described above, the short pulse heating and the sub heater heating can be selectively operated by effectively using the power allocated to the recording head, and the temperature of the recording head can be adjusted in a short time.

  When short pulse heating and sub heater heating are simultaneously performed, if the pulse width of the heat pulse used for short pulse heating is constant, the duty ratio of the PWM drive pulse used for sub heater heating will be constant regardless of the operation mode. good. At this time, it is preferable to select a duty ratio that can most effectively use the remaining power obtained by subtracting the power used for short pulse heating from the power allocated to the recording head.

  In the first embodiment, an example in which the duty ratio of the sub heater PWM drive pulse is determined according to the operation mode and the sub heater is driven has been described. In this embodiment, the setting operation of the duty ratio of the sub heater PWM drive pulse according to the head rank will be described with reference to FIGS. 7 to 8.

  The sub-heater is composed of a resistor, and the resistance value of each recording head is different due to manufacturing variations, so even if it is driven with the same voltage, the power consumption changes. This variation information is called a head rank of the recording head, and is stored in a non-volatile memory (for example, an EEPROM) built in the recording head. Therefore, in this embodiment, the head rank recorded in the non-volatile memory is read during the start-up sequence of the recording apparatus, and the sub-heater is driven at the optimum duty ratio with the read head rank.

  FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing the configuration of head rank acquisition.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the head rank is stored in a non-volatile memory 3 a such as an EEPROM, which is built in the recording head 3. The head rank is read from the non-volatile memory 3 a to the ASIC 603 of the controller 600 when the recording head 3 is mounted on the carriage 2 and the recording apparatus 1 is powered on.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing temperature control processing of the recording head based on the acquired head rank.

  In FIG. 8, (a) is a flowchart for explaining the operation of setting the duty of the sub heater PWM drive signal when the power of the recording apparatus 1 is ON. Further, (b) is a flowchart showing an operation of setting the duty of the sub heater PWM drive signal when the printing head is replaced while the printing apparatus 1 is powered on.

  When the printing apparatus 1 is powered off, the printing apparatus 1 can not confirm whether the user has replaced the printing head. Therefore, when the printing apparatus is powered on, the printing head is always checked for rank. Therefore, when the printing apparatus is powered on, the initialization operation shown in FIG. 8A is executed regardless of the presence or absence of the print job.

  According to FIG. 8A, first, at step S101, the head rank value of the print head is acquired. This is done by reading out the rank information written in the EEPROM inside the recording head 3 as shown in FIG. Next, in step S102, the acquired head rank value is evaluated. This is done by checking if the obtained head rank value is within the specified value.

  Here, if the acquired head rank value indicates a value outside the specified value, it is determined that a failure has occurred in the recording head or a recording head not compatible with the recording apparatus 1 has been mounted. Therefore, it is impossible to perform the following recording operation, and the process proceeds to step S106, performs error processing, and ends.

  On the other hand, when the acquired head rank value indicates a value within the specified value, the process proceeds to step S103, and the head rank value (Hrank) currently acquired in the recording apparatus 1 and the acquired head are acquired. Compare with the rank value (Orank). When the user purchases the recording apparatus 1 and the recording head is mounted for the first time in the installation operation, the head rank value held by the recording apparatus 1 is the value at the time of shipment from the factory. Make comparisons with numbers.

  According to the comparison, if it is determined in step S104 that Hrank 、 Orank, that is, the held head rank value and the acquired head rank value are different, it is determined that the printing head replacement was performed while the printing apparatus was powered off. . Then, the process proceeds to step S105, and the head rank value held in step S101 is replaced with the acquired head rank value, and the head rank value to be held is updated. Then, according to the updated head rank value, an appropriate value of the duty ratio of the PWM drive signal used for heating the sub heater is selected from the duty table shown in FIG.

  On the other hand, if Hrank = Orank, that is, if the held head rank value and the acquired head rank value are the same, the head rank value is not updated, and the process ends.

  Next, with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 8B, the operation of setting the duty of the PWM drive signal of the sub heater accompanying the replacement of the printing head while the printing apparatus is powered on will be described. This operation is performed when it is detected that the cover of the printing apparatus is open for the purpose of print head replacement by the user operation.

  According to FIG. 8B, it is checked in step S107 whether or not the recording head has been mounted on the carriage 2 and has changed to the non-mounted state. Here, if it is detected that the print head has been removed from the carriage 2, the process proceeds to step S108, and it is checked whether the print head has been mounted on the carriage. Here, if it is detected that the recording head is mounted on the carriage 2, the process proceeds to step S109, and it is determined whether the recording head has been replaced. This process is the same process as the rank acquisition process described above with reference to FIG.

  Here, when it is determined that a recording head different from the previous one is attached, the head rank value is updated, and as described above, the PWM drive signal at the time of sub heater heating appropriate for the acquired head rank value. Determine the duty ratio. Then, while the recording head is used, sub-heater heating is performed by PWM drive at the duty ratio determined here.

  As described above, according to this embodiment, when the recording head is replaced, the duty ratio of the PMW drive pulse for heating the sub heater can be determined according to the head rank value unique to the recording head. In this way, appropriate sub-heater heating that reflects the characteristics unique to each recording head is possible.

Reference Signs List 1 recording device, 2 carriage, 3 recording head, 201 head chip, 202 sub heater resistor, 203 nozzle array

Claims (10)

The first heater provided to eject ink corresponding to each of the plurality of printing elements, and the second heater separately provided to heat the printing head separately from the first heater using a recording head, a recording apparatus for recording by out-discharge ink onto a recording medium,
Storage means for storing a plurality of drive signals of different duty used to drive the second heater;
Input means for inputting an operation mode;
Calculating means for calculating a first electric power used for recording by driving the first heater based on the operation mode inputted by the input means;
It is used to heat the recording head by driving the first heater by supplying the first electric power calculated by the calculation means and a pulse that does not cause ink discharge to the first heater. Selection means for selecting an appropriate drive signal from the plurality of drive signals stored in the storage means based on the second power;
Controlling the second heater to heat the recording head by the drive signal selected by the selection means during the recording operation of the recording head and during the time when the recording head is not performing the recording operation And a control means which is capable. The recording head is replaceable, and the recording head incorporates a non-volatile memory storing a head rank indicating characteristics of the recording head.
The input means, in the case where power to the recording apparatus is turned on, when it is mounted after the recording head is removed, enter the head rank from 該装wear has been recording head,
The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the selection unit selects an appropriate drive signal from the plurality of drive signals stored in the storage unit based on the input head rank.   The control means further heats the recording head by driving the first heater by inputting a pulse that does not cause ink discharge to the first heater during a time when the recording head is not performing the recording operation. The recording apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein:   The control means drives the first heater depending on image data to drive the second heater based on the power used for printing during the printing operation of the printhead. The recording apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the recording apparatus is controlled to be heated.   The recording apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the selection unit performs the selection within a range of power allocated to the recording head. It further comprises a scanning means for reciprocating the carriage on which the recording head is mounted,
The time during which the recording head is not performing the recording operation includes the period during which the movement of the carriage by the scanning means is switched from the forward scanning to the backward scanning, and during the switching from the backward scanning to the forward scanning. The recording apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, including a ramp down period.   The recording according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the operation mode includes a monochrome printing mode, a color printing mode, a high resolution printing mode, and a high speed printing mode, and the power consumption in each of them is different. apparatus. Each of a plurality of drive signals used to drive the second heater is a PWM drive signal,
The recording apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the duty is defined by a ratio of time during which a pulse of the PWM drive signal is on per cycle of the PWM drive signal.   The recording apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the heating of the recording head by the control means is performed when the temperature of the recording head does not reach a predetermined temperature. . The first heater provided to eject ink corresponding to each of the plurality of printing elements, and the second heater separately provided to heat the printing head separately from the first heater using a recording head, a temperature control method of the recording head in the recording apparatus for recording out ejection ink onto a recording medium,
An input step of inputting an operation mode;
A calculation step of calculating a first power used for recording by driving the first heater based on the operation mode input in the input step;
It is used to heat the recording head by driving the first heater by supplying the first electric power calculated in the calculation step and a pulse that does not cause ink discharge to the first heater. A selection step of selecting an appropriate drive signal from a plurality of drive signals with different duties used to drive the second heater stored in the memory based on the second power;
A control step of controlling to heat the recording head by driving the second heater during the recording operation of the recording head and during a time when the recording head is not performing the recording operation by the drive signal selected in the selection step. And a recording head temperature control method.

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