JPH02229049A - Ink jet recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To surely dry and fix ink, to continuously eject sheets without soiling them and to contain piled sheets by providing a control means which controls a carried material to be recorded to a 1st containing part when the recording duty of the material is higher than a prescribed value and to a 2nd containing part when the recording duty is lower than the prescribed value. CONSTITUTION:First data that is preliminarily designated to be stored in the RAM 63 of a control part 60 is data N, and second data that is preliminarily designated to be stored in the RAM 63 is data Y when the recording duty is lower than a reference value. At the end of recording, the data N is compared with the data Y, and if the data Y is equal to the data N, the data Y is judged whether greater or lesser than 0. If the data Y is greater than 0, a separate plate 23 rocking together with an arm turned by a solenoid 42 is switched, whereas if the data Y is less than 0, the separate plate 23 is not switched to eject an already recorded sheet 100. Conversely, if the data Y is not equal to the data N, the data Y is again compared with the data N. If the data Y is greater than the data N, the separate plate 23 is not switched to eject the already recorded sheet 100.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an inkjet that performs recording on a recording material (hereinafter referred to as "paper") by ejecting a recording liquid (hereinafter referred to as "ink"). It relates to a recording device. In addition, in the present invention, the recording material includes continuous paper in the main body that is cut into a predetermined size so that it is finally in a cut state when ejected, and paper that is cut in the front row or B row. including. Examples of the recording material include plain paper, processed paper, sheet film for overhead projectors, and hard print film.

[Conventional technology]

A conventional inkjet recording device 11 shown in FIG.
Recording is performed by ejecting ink onto paper 100 fed from a paper feed mechanism (not shown).

That is, a recording head 54 that discharges ink is mounted on a carriage 14, and a carriage guide 13 is disposed parallel to a cylindrical paper feed roller 2 that feeds paper 100 during recording, and the carriage 14 is mounted on a carriage 14.
It is designed to be able to move 3 toes back and forth. and,
Guide plate 1 for feeding paper 100 in the direction of arrow A
A paper discharge roller 91 and a spur 92 are provided at the terminal end of the tJI 5, which is a storage section for storing recorded paper 100.
The recorded paper 100 is taken out υF to the paper tray 93 and stored therein.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) The conventional inkjet recording device described above waits for the ink adhering to the discharged paper (hereinafter referred to as "preceding paper J") to dry and fix. Since the recorded paper that is ejected next (hereinafter referred to as the "following paper") is stacked on top of the preceding paper, the undried ink may come into contact with the succeeding paper depending on the state of the ink on the preceding paper. However, there was a problem in that the recording section of the preceding paper and the back surface of the succeeding paper were stained.

The present invention has been made in view of the problems of the above-mentioned conventional technology, and it is possible to eject ink by storing each recorded paper in a different storage section depending on the state of ink ejection. To provide an ink sheet recording device that can reliably dry and fix ink regardless of the condition, continuously discharge each sheet without staining the sheets, and store the sheets one above the other.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, an inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1 of the present invention includes: an inkjet recording head that ejects ink to record on a recording material; A conveyance system that performs conveyance; a first and second storage section that stores the recorded material conveyed by the conveyance system; and a control means for controlling the conveyance system so that the recording material is conveyed to the first storage section and, if the value is lower than the predetermined value, to the second storage section. The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 2 is the inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first storage part has the recorded surface of the recording material 10, and the second storage part has the recorded surface. The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 3 is characterized in that the recording material is stored with the surface on which the recording has not been made facing down. A transfer means is provided for transferring the recording material from the storage section in which it is initially stored to another storage section.

Further, an inkjet recording apparatus according to a fourth aspect of the present invention includes: an inkjet recording head that records on a recording material by ejecting ink; a conveyance system that conveys the recording material; and a conveyance system that conveys the recording material. first and second storage parts that store recorded materials; and when the recording duty of the first recorded material transported to the first storage part is higher than a predetermined value, the first recorded material is stored in the first and second storage parts; The apparatus is characterized by comprising a control means for controlling the conveyance system so that a second recording material to be recorded next to the recording material is conveyed to the second storage section.

Here, a particularly effective inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1.2.3 or 4 is an inkjet recording head that records on a recording material by discharging recording liquid, which emits droplets of recording liquid. It is preferable to use an electrothermal transducer that generates thermal energy for forming.

[Effect]

First, the state of ink ejection onto the preceding paper is detected.

When the detected ejection state includes factors that are considered to require time for the ink to dry and fix, that is, when the recording duty is high, the paper be stored in different compartments. As a result, regardless of the state of ink ejection, it is possible to prevent the image from becoming blurred due to the rubbing of the succeeding paper, and from staining the preceding paper and the succeeding paper by adhering undried ink to the succeeding paper.

Paper with a high recording duty is stored in the tray with the recording side facing up (face-up), and paper with a low recording duty is stored in the tray with the recording side facing down (face-down). By switching to , it is possible to dry ink on paper with a high recording duty faster than in the face-down state.

Furthermore, by providing a transfer means in one of the storage sections, after the image of the recording material discharged to the one storage section is dried,
You can transfer them to the other storage section and collect them in one.

〔Example〕

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

The inkjet recording apparatus 1 according to the first embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. A paper mechanism 20 and two paper discharge trays 1B and 17 are provided.

Therefore, parts in FIG. 1 that are common to FIG. 11 are given the same reference numerals. The paper ejection trays 16 and 17 are substantially the same as the paper ejection tray 93 shown in FIG. 10, but two paper ejection trays 16 and 17 are provided in parallel with an interval sufficient to accommodate an appropriate number of sheets 100 stacked one on top of the other. Note that, as shown in FIG.
Heater 18 is a heating means for heating the upper surface side of
may be attached. The heater 18 is controlled by a control unit 60 (described later) via a driver (not shown) or the like to perform continuous heating or intermittent heating.

The paper ejecting mechanism 20 transports the recorded paper 100 sent from the guide plate 15 in the direction of arrow A to a separate plate 23 which is rotatable in the direction of arrow B about a shaft 24.
(Also referred to as a separator) is used to selectively send the paper to the paper discharge tray 16 or the paper discharge tray 17.

FIG. 2 shows an enlarged view of the paper ejecting mechanism 20. The paper ejection mechanism 20 has two slits 2 at one end of a separate plate 23.
1a is formed and has a pair of support members 26 extending perpendicularly to both sides thereof, and a shaft 24 that is rotatably supported on the lower side of the support members 26 in the drawing has a loose fit in the two slits 21a. Two spurs 22 are fitted onto a shaft 25 which is rotatably supported on the upper side in the figure and into which two paper discharge rollers 21 are fitted. and,
The shaft 24 is forcibly rotated by a motor (not shown), and as the shaft 24 rotates, both paper discharge rollers 21
rotates in the direction of arrow C. The two spurs 22 engage with both paper discharge rollers 21 directly or through the paper 100, and rotate in the direction of the arrow along with the two paper discharge rollers 21. Note that the rotating shaft 24 is rotatably supported by a machine frame (not shown).

The separate plate 23 is configured so that its direction is changed (swung) by an arm (not shown) rotated by a solenoid 42 (not shown in FIG. 2 but shown in FIG. 3) as the arm rotates. It is composed of

The paper ejecting mechanism 20 constitutes a transport system that transports paper together with a paper feeding mechanism (not shown), paper rollers 12, guide plate 15, and the like.

FIG. 3 shows the functional configuration of the inkjet recording apparatus 1, and the paper feed section 30 includes a paper feed motor 32 that operates a paper feed mechanism (not shown), and a driver 31 that drives the paper feed motor 32. The paper discharge selection unit 40 includes a solenoid 42 that swings the separate plate 2[1 and rotates the arm described with reference to FIG.
and a driver 41 for driving. The recording unit 50 is
A buffer memory 51 that temporarily stores image data sent from a control section 60, which will be described later, a carriage drive section 52 that drives the carriage 14 shown in FIG. 100, a recording head 54 shown in FIG.
It consists of a driver 53 that drives a recording head 54.

The control section 60 controls the paper feed section 30, the paper discharge selection section 40, and the recording section 50. The control unit 60 also controls the RA
A central processing unit 6 that temporarily stores image data in M63, detects the recording duty, and determines the ink ejection state.
1 (hereinafter referred to as r M P U 6] J), and MP
A read-only memory 62 (hereinafter referred to as FROM [i2]) that stores the control program that operates the U61, and a work area called a work area where the MPU 61 temporarily stores image data sent to the recording unit 50 during recording. Random access memory 63 (hereinafter referred to as rRAM63J), which is a storage means used as a storage device, and output capotro 4 (hereinafter referred to as ``rRAM63J''), which outputs various data including image data and control signals to be sent to the recording unit 50. 1
7064”. ). The control unit 60 functions as a control means.

The recording duty refers to the density of ink adhering to the recording surface of the recording material, which is determined based on image data sent to the recording head 54.

Next, the operation of the inkjet recording apparatus 1 will be explained.

First, when a main switch (not shown) is turned on (step 141), data in the control section 60 is reset (step 142). Next, prespecified first data (hereinafter referred to as "data NJ") is stored in the RAM 63.
1 flag is passed (step 43). It is determined whether a recording signal is input (step 144). If there is not, the process returns to step 142. If so, the image data is stored in the RAM 63 (step 145). The recorded image data is compared with a predetermined reference value (step 46). When the recording duty is lower than the reference value, a "-1" flag is set as pre-designated second data (hereinafter referred to as "data Y") to be stored in the RAM [i3] (step 147
). When the recording duty is higher than the reference value, a "1" flag is set as data Y (step 148).

After Step] 47 or Step 148, the paper 100 fed from a paper feeding mechanism (not shown) is fed in the direction of arrow A by the paper feeding roller 12, and the recording head 54, which reciprocates together with the carriage 14, responds to the recording signal. recording is performed (step 149). After the recording is completed, data N and data Y are compared (step 150).
. When data Y is equal to data N, it is determined whether data Y is larger or smaller than O (step 151). When the data Y is greater than 0, the solenoid 42 switches the separate plate 23 (separator) that swings in accordance with the rotational rotation (step 153).
, data Yh) is smaller than O, the recorded paper 100 is ejected without switching the separator (step 1).
54). On the other hand, if data Y is not equal to data N, data Y and data N are compared again and it is determined whether data Y is larger or smaller than data N (step) 52
). When data Y is larger than data N, the separator is not switched, and when data Y is smaller than data N, the separator is switched (step 153).
00 is ejected (step 154). After step 154, replace data Y with data N (step 155)
. Then, the process returns to step 144 and the operations from step 144 to step 145 are repeated.

By repeating this operation, control as shown in Table 1 is performed, for example.

Table 1 Among the recorded sheets stored in the paper output trays 16 and 17, the recorded paper 100 stored in the paper output tray 17 is
The ink is heated by the heater 18, and the applied ink is quickly dried and fixed. As a result, even if a subsequent sheet is fed on top of it, it will not get dirty.

An inkjet recording apparatus 2 according to a second embodiment of the present invention shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 is provided with two paper discharge trays 45 and 46 opened upward. In addition, two paper feed rollers 3
Above 3 is a flat platen 5 that supports the paper 100.
5 and two carriage guides 57 that pass through a carriage 56 on which a recording head 54 is mounted are provided parallel to both paper feed rollers 33, respectively. The carriage 56 is capable of reciprocating along both carriage guides 57.

Above the platen 55, there are two spurs 43b rotatably supported by a paper ejection roller 43 and a shaft 43a, and further above these, a paper ejection selection flap 44, parallel to both paper feed rollers 33. It is a provision. The flap 44
is provided at a position that does not make contact with the paper 100. The paper discharge selection flap 44 substantially corresponds to the separate plate 23 shown in FIG. It is possible to change the direction. By changing the direction, the paper 100 discharged from the spur 43b and the paper discharge roller 43 has a function of branching the delivery route to the paper discharge tray 45 or the paper discharge tray 46 and storing the paper 100 therein.

The paper ejection tray 45 is stored with the ejected paper with the recording surface facing -F (face up), and the paper ejection tray 46 is stored with the ejected paper with the recording surface facing down (face down). It has become so. A heater 70 serving as a heating means is attached to the back side of the paper discharge tray 45, and is controlled by a control section 65 shown in FIG. 7 and described later, and is heated continuously or intermittently by a driver or the like (not shown).

FIG. 7 shows the functional configuration of the inkjet recording apparatus 2, in which parts common to those in FIG. 3 are given the same reference numerals. However, as described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6, the solenoid 42 of the paper discharge selection section 40 is attached to an arm that swings the paper discharge selection flap 44 instead of the separate plate 23. There is. The control unit 65 includes a read-only memory 66 to which a control program for controlling the heater 70 is added to the control unit 60 shown in FIG.
(hereinafter referred to as FROM66J) is replaced with ROM62. The control unit 65 is also the control unit 6 shown in FIG.
0, it functions as a control means.

The paper transfer section 80 shown in FIG. 7 is necessary only for the third embodiment of the present invention, which is provided with a transfer means described later, and is not necessary for the inkjet recording apparatus 2 of the second embodiment. do not have. In the third embodiment, as described later, the ROM
The control program stored in 66 is also partially changed.

Next, the operation of the inkjet recording apparatus 2 will be explained.

FIG. 8 shows one sheet of paper 100 of the inkjet recording device 2.
This figure shows the main operations for this operation, and this operation is composed of steps from step 111 to step 116.

When you start the recording mode, first, paper 1, which is the preceding paper, is
Image data given from an external device (not shown) to be recorded in the RAM 63 is stored in the RAM 63 (step 111). Next, based on this image data, the paper 10
The recording printing duty to 0 is determined, and the determined recording printing duty is compared with a predetermined reference value set in advance (step 112). When the recording printing duty is lower than the reference value, the paper discharge selection flap 44 is operated by the solenoid 42 and the arm so that the recorded paper 100 is delivered to the paper discharge tray 46 (step 113).

When the recording printing duty is higher than the reference value, it is assumed that the ink takes time to dry and fix, so the solenoid 82 and υF by arm
Operate the paper selection flap 44 (step 1) 4). Next, the paper feed mechanism (not shown) feeds paper +00 (
Step 115).

At this time, the process from step month 2 to step 113 or step 114 may be performed in parallel with step 1115 by interrupt processing of the MPU 61 or the like. Then, the image data recording operation is started (step 116). Thereafter, the operation of selecting the alligator paper tray 45 and the paper ejection tray 46 by the record printing tutee on the paper 100 is completed, and the paper is ejected (step 117). By controlling the paper with a high recording duty to be ejected and stored in the paper ejection tray 45 in a face-up state in this manner, the drying of the ink is accelerated when the paper is stored in a face-down state. Furthermore, the paper 100 with a high recording duty stored in the paper output tray 45 is stored in the heater 7
Since it is heated continuously or intermittently by 0,
(2) The applied ink dries and fixes more quickly. As a result, even if a subsequent sheet with a high recording duty is fed on top of it, the recording surface of the preceding sheet will not be soiled.

Each step from step Lll to step 6 is an algorithm that is processed for each recording operation.

FIGS. 9(a), (b), (c), and (d) schematically show an inkjet recording apparatus 3 according to a third embodiment of the present invention, along with some operations thereof. In the inkjet recording apparatus 3, instead of the paper ejection tray 45 shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, a paper ejection tray 4 having a recess formed in the lower part is used.
It has 7. A transfer plate 83 that fits in the recess when not in operation is swingably provided so as to come into contact with the paper discharge tray 46 during operation, and below the transfer plate 83,
A solenoid IB for operating the transfer plate 83 is installed. The solenoid 82 is driven by a driver 81 controlled by the control section 65, as shown in FIG. However, it is necessary to partially change the control program of the control section 65, as will be described later with reference to FIG. A paper transfer section 80 composed of a driver 81 and a solenoid 82 and a transfer plate 83 constitute a transfer means.

Next, the operation of the inkjet recording device 3 will be explained.

FIG. 10 shows the main operations of the inkjet recording apparatus 3, and this operation includes steps 121 to 13.
It consists of three steps.

Among these, step 12], 122, 12:l
, 124, 125. +2fi127.128.1
Steps 111.29 and 130 are shown in FIG. 7, respectively. ．． 112113. ]14.1.15. ]l[
i 117.114115 , 1 ], [i , 1
1.7, so the explanation will be omitted.

In the inkjet recording apparatus 3, the control program of the control unit 65 has been changed, and in addition to the corresponding steps described above,
When the recording duty is higher than the reference value, the following operations are performed.

Ejection (step 130) similar to step 117 in FIG.
), measurement of ink drying time is started (step 131). Thereafter, it is determined whether the drying time has elapsed or not (step 132), and if the drying time has not elapsed, wait until the drying time has elapsed.
As shown in (b), (c), and (d), the transfer plate 83 is moved in the direction of arrow E to transfer the recorded paper 100 ejected to the paper ejection tray 47 to the paper ejection tray 46 ( Step 133).

Similarly to the inkjet recording apparatus 2 shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the inkjet recording apparatus 3 also loads paper with a high recording duty onto the paper discharge tray 45 in a face-up state.
By controlling the ink to be exposed and retracted, drying of the ink is accelerated compared to the case where the ink is stored in the face-down state. Furthermore, since the heater 70 is attached to the back side of the paper discharge tray 47, the ink drying time can be shortened. As a result, even if recorded sheets with a high ink recording duty to be ejected next as subsequent sheets are stored one on top of the other in the order in which they were recorded, no stains will occur.

In this embodiment, the paper with a high recording duty stored in the paper output tray 45 is transferred at a timing before the subsequent paper that is continuously recorded is ejected. Since the recording sheets are stacked face down, page alignment can also be performed.

In the inkjet recording device 2.3, when using a back print film in which images are recorded on the back side and images are viewed from the resin-treated surface on the front side, good ink drying and fixing can be achieved by performing similar control.

The first, second, and third embodiments described above are all two
Although the first embodiment has three or more paper ejection trays, it is also possible to have three or more paper ejection trays if necessary.

In the present invention, the recording material includes all the continuous paper in the main body that is cut into a predetermined size so that it is finally in a cut state when it is ejected, and the material that has been cut in advance into rows A or B. Examples of the recording material include plain paper, processed paper, sheet film for overhead projector, and back print film.

Note that even if the paper that has passed through the recording area is not actually recorded, it is a "recorded" paper, that is, a recorded paper. For example, it can be said that recording has been made even on a blank sheet of paper (in this case, the recording duty is extremely low).

〔Effect of the invention〕

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it produces the following effects.

By storing each recorded paper in a different storage section depending on the recording duty, the ink can be reliably dried and fixed, and each paper can be ejected one after another without staining and stored in a stack. can. You can always get beautiful records.

Also, paper with a high recording duty is stored in the storage unit with the recording side facing up (face up), and paper with a low recording duty is stored in the storage unit with the recording side facing down (face down). By switching to this mode, ink on paper with a high recording duty can dry more quickly than in the face-down state.

Furthermore, by timing the transfer of paper with a high recording duty stored in one storage unit before the subsequent paper that is continuously recorded is ejected, it is possible to transfer the paper with a high recording duty to the other storage unit face-down. Since all recording sheets are stacked in this state, page alignment can be performed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a first embodiment of the inkjet recording apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of the paper ejection mechanism 20 of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is the inkjet recording apparatus of FIG. 1. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the main operations of the inkjet recording apparatus 1, and FIG. 5 is a perspective view of essential parts showing a second embodiment of the inkjet recording apparatus of the present invention. , Figure 6 is a side view of Figure 4, and Figure 7 is a side view of Figure 4.
9 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of the inkjet recording apparatus 2 shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the main operations of the inkjet recording apparatus 2, and FIG.
Figures (a), (b), (c), and (d) are explanatory views showing a third embodiment of the inkjet recording apparatus of the present invention, and Fig. 1O is a flowchart showing the main operations of the inkjet recording apparatus 3. , FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram showing a conventional example of an inkjet recording apparatus. 1.2.3 - Inkjet recording device, 12
, 33...Paper feed roller 13, 57-...Carriage guide, 14, 56
... Carriage, 15... Guide plate, 16,', 17. , 45.46.47... paper ejection tray, 18, 70... heater 20... paper ejection mechanism, 21, 43---paper ejection roller 21a , ---... Slit, 43b, 22... Spur, 23... Separate plate, 24, 25.4
3a...Shaft, 26...Support member, 30-...Paper feed section, 31, 41.53.81...Driver 32.
...Paper feed motor F1 40...1 paper selection unit, 42.82...Solenoid, 44...Paper discharge selection flap, 50... ...recording unit, 51...buffer memory, 52...carriage drive unit, 54...recording head, 55...platen, [io, [i5] ...Control unit, 61...
・MPU. 62, 66...ROM. 63...RAM. 64...Ilo, 80...Paper transfer unit, 83...Transfer plate, 100...Paper, 111-117.121-133. , +4] ~ 155
・・・・・・Step.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. An inkjet recording head that records on a recording material by ejecting ink, a conveyance system that conveys the recording material, and a storage system that stores the recording material conveyed by the conveyance system. If the recording duty of the conveyed recording material is higher than a predetermined value, the recording material is sent to the first storage part, and if it is lower than the predetermined value, it is sent to the second storage part. An inkjet recording apparatus comprising: a control means for controlling the conveyance system so that the recording material is conveyed. 2. The recording material is stored in the first storage section with the recorded side facing up, and in the second storage section with the recorded side facing down. The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that: 3. The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising a transfer means for transferring the recorded recording material from the storage section in which it is initially stored to another storage section. 4. An inkjet recording head that ejects ink to record on a recording material, a transport system that transports the recording material, and first and second storage that stores the recording material transported by the transport system. and when the recording duty of the first recording material conveyed to the first storage section is higher than a predetermined value, a second recording material to be recorded next to the first recording material. an inkjet recording apparatus comprising: a control means for controlling the conveyance system so that the inkjet recording medium is conveyed to the second storage section. 5. The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, wherein the inkjet recording head includes an electrothermal transducer that generates thermal energy for forming droplets of recording liquid.