JPH0564888A - Recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce a burden of processing preheat data on a CPU in a recorder. CONSTITUTION:Image data inputted to a register 5 of a recording head are successively sampled by a flip-flop 92 at a negative phase of a transfer clock CK as data related to a previous line recording. This data is inputted into the register 5 at a positive phase of the transfer clock as reverse data of the previous line data to serve as preheat data.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording apparatus, and more particularly to a recording apparatus which performs preheating.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a so-called thermal recording head of a thermal transfer system or an ink jet recording head which ejects ink by utilizing thermal energy, it is necessary to reduce variations in recording characteristics due to heat accumulation caused by recording. Before the recording, the heating element of the recording head is caused to generate heat in advance. As a result, it is possible to always obtain a constant recording characteristic, and also to make uniform the dispersion of the recording characteristics among a plurality of heating elements, and to obtain good characters, images, etc. without density unevenness (hereinafter simply referred to as an image). Can be recorded.

As a data structure for performing this preheating, conventionally, the CPU directly transfers the preheating data used during preheating from the line buffer (memory) to the recording head side in the same manner as the image data used for recording. Stored in the register of the recording head.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, the CPU distinguishes and transfers the preheat data and the image data from the data for one line. For this reason, the data transfer processing for one line requires the normal processing for two lines without preheating, which increases the load on the CPU.

The preheat data is generated and transferred for each line by the CPU as inversion data of the image data of the previous line or all black data. Therefore, the processing load on the CPU is similarly increased.

Further, as described above, it is often the case that only the specific preheat data (previous line inversion, all black) as described above can be generated because of the heavy load on the CPU. As a result, the fine preheating operation cannot be performed, and the image quality of the recorded image may be deteriorated.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned various problems, and an object of the present invention is to utilize a memory such as a register provided in a drive circuit on the recording head side for preheat data. The object of the present invention is to provide a recording device capable of reducing the load on the CPU by generating the.

[0008]

Therefore, according to the present invention,
In a recording device that records using heat energy,
Based on a recording head including a heating element that generates the thermal energy, a data storage unit for recording image data corresponding to the heating element of the recording head, and image data stored by the data storage unit. Driving means for driving the heating element to generate the thermal energy,
Utilizing the image data stored in the data storage means,
And a preheating control unit for causing the driving unit to drive based on the preheat data generated by the generating unit. It is characterized by

[0009]

With the above arrangement, preheat data is automatically generated based on the image data once transferred to the means for storing the image data on the recording head side, and the preheating of the heating element is performed based on this data. Be seen.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

(First Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a data processing system of a recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, a CPU 1 executes data processing in this system, and a ROM 2 stores a program for the above processing. A line buffer (L.
B) 3 stores the recording image data transferred from the host device. The P / S register control circuit 4 converts parallel data read from the line buffer 3 into serial data, transfers the serial data to the recording head 10 side, and supplies various control signals as described later. In the recording head 10, the S / P register 5 converts serial data transferred from the control unit 20 side into parallel data, and the latch 6 outputs S data.
The output from the / P register 6 is latched. The heating resistor 7 as a heating element according to the thermal transfer recording system is provided with a gate 8
Generates heat when energized by turning on / off according to the data output from the latch 6. ON / OFF of the gate 8 is controlled by a strobe signal (STB) from the control unit 20 side. The recording head 10 has a heating resistor 7, a gate circuit 8, a latch 6, and an S / P register 5 formed on the same substrate.

The control circuit 9 of the control unit 20 generates preheat data from the output D _OUT of the S / P register 5, and switches between image data and preheat data to change the S / P.
Transfer to register 5. The CK generator 11 also generates a preheat data transfer clock CK. The switch 12 switches between the image data transfer clock CK and the preheat data transfer clock CK according to the SEL signal from the P / S control circuit 4. The frequency of the preheat data transfer clock is higher than that of the image data transfer clock.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the details of the S / P register 5 and the control circuit 9 shown in FIG. 1 which constitute the preheat data generator.

The S / P register 5 has a number of D-type flip-flops (F / F) 5 _{1 to} 5 corresponding to the number of heating resistors 7.
The _n is constituted by cascading, D _OUT is output from the final stage F / F5 _n.

The D-type flip-flop (F / F) 92 constituting the control circuit 9 samples the D _OUT signal (D2 signal) with the reverse polarity (reverse phase) of the input clock CK to generate preheat data. To do. This preheat data is for F / F92.

[0017]

[Outer 1]

By outputting as an output, inverted data of the previous line can be generated. 93 is a clock C
It is an inverter that inverts K. A switch 94 switches between image data and preheat data from the F / F 92, and is controlled by the input signal SEL.

The operation of the data processing system of this example will be described below with reference to the flow chart shown in FIG.

First, a description will be given of a recording process using image data. In step S1 of FIG. 3, the switch 94 is set to D1.
Side (image data side), and then P in step S2
The / S control circuit 4 starts outputting the image data DAT and the clock CK. In step 3, it is judged whether or not the transfer of the image data for one line is completed, and if it is completed, the recording operation is performed based on this image data in step S4.

Next, in step S5, the switch 9
4 is switched to the D2 side (preheat data side), and the clock CK for one line is similarly transferred in step S6.
In this case, the D1 input image data in the switch 94 is not necessary. When it is determined in step S7 that the transfer of one line of preheat data has been completed, the preheat operation is performed in step S8. Then, step S9
If it is determined that the recording for one page is not completed, the process returns to step S1 and the above process is repeated.

FIG. 4 shows a timing chart in the processing shown in FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram showing the contents of the S / P register 5 at each point in the timing chart.

The processing of this example will be described below with reference to FIGS. The register 5 has 1728 bits corresponding to the number of heating resistors of this example.

From the time point a shown in FIG. 4, the image data D
The transfer of (1) is started. At this time, the S / P register 5
Is in the state shown in FIG. Below, time point b
The states of to i correspond to the states shown in (b) to (i) of FIG. 5, respectively. Next, at time point b, that is, clock C
At the first rise of K, the first image data D (1) of one line is taken into the S / P register 5. Similarly, the second image data D (2) is captured at the time point C when the clock CK rises. When this process is repeated until time point d, 1728-bit image data is fetched into the S / P register 5, as shown in FIG. The above processing is related to the processing of steps S1 to S4 shown in FIG.

Next, at the time point e, that is, the first falling edge of the preheat clock CK, D _OUT of the S / P register 5 is
(That is, the first image data D (1)) is F / F9
Sample at 2. As a result, the S / P register 5
Input D _IN is the inverted data of D (1)

[0026]

[Outside 2]

The state becomes. Next, at the time point f which is the next rising edge of the clock CK, the first stage register of the S / P register 5 is set.

[0028]

[Outside 3]

Is stored.

Similarly, when the inverted data is sampled at the falling edge of the preheat data clock CK and stored in the S / P register 5 at the rising edge, the inverted data of the preceding line data for one line is stored. (See FIG. 5 (i)). The above processing is performed in step S shown in FIG.
It relates to the processing of 5 to S8.

In the above embodiment, the control circuit 9 is provided in the control section 20 of the apparatus. However, when the control circuit 9 is incorporated in the recording head 10 side and the control is performed by the SEL signal, the configuration becomes simpler. However, in this case, the signal line for D _OUT is not necessary, but the number of signal lines for SEL signal is increased, so the number of signal lines is not changed.

Further, as shown in FIG. 1, the clock generator 11 is provided so that the preheat data transfer clock CK is different from the main body side. However, the CPU controls the P / S control circuit 4 and the preheat data is transferred. If the clock CK is generated from the circuit 4 even during the transfer, the CK generator 11 and the switch 12 are unnecessary, and the configuration is simplified.

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a data processing system of a recording apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention, and shows a system similar to that of FIG. 6, the same elements as those shown in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted.

The difference from the configuration shown in FIG.
9 and the control circuit 19 outputs the output D of the S / P register.
Preheat data is generated from _OUT , and image data and preheat data are switched and transferred to the S / P register 5.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing the details of the S / P register 5 and the control circuit 19 of FIG. 1 which constitute the preheat data generator.

Details of the S / P register are the same as those shown in FIG. 2, and the description thereof is omitted.

The D flip-flop (F / F) 192 is
The D _OUT signal from the S / P register 5 is input, and this is sampled with the reverse polarity (reverse phase) of the clock CK. The inverter 193 inverts the clock CK, and the switch 1
Reference numeral 94 switches between the image data D1 and the preheat data generated by the interpolation circuit 195. This switch 194
The switching is controlled by the control signal SEL input to it. The interpolation block 195 determines the image data of the previous line output from the F / F 192 and the current time (current line).
Preheat data is interpolated (calculated) from the image data of
To generate. For example, the inverted data of the previous line and the data of the current line are ANDed and generated.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing the operation of the processing system of this example. The processing of this example will be described below with reference to FIG.

In step S81, the switch 194 is switched to the image data D1 side to prepare for image data transfer. Then, in step S82, transfer of image data from the system line buffer 3 to the S / P register 5 via the P / S control circuit 4 is started. If it is determined in step S83 that the transfer of the image data for one line is completed, the recording operation based on this image data is performed in step S84.

Next, in step S85, the switch 194
This time, the D3 side for preheat data is switched to prepare for the transfer of preheat data. Then, step S8
At step 6, just like step S82, first at step S8.
The same data D1 as the image data transferred in 2 is transferred from the line buffer 3 via the P / S control circuit 4. At this time, this image data D1 is input to the interpolation circuit 195,
Image data D2 of the previous line output from the F / F 192
Is interpolated between and S / P register 5 as data D3
Transferred to. Here, the data D _OUT of the previous line is
Sampling is performed by the F / F 192 at the falling edge of the clock CK, and the Q output of the F / F 192 and the data of the previous line are set. Next, in step S87, it is determined whether or not the transfer for one line is completed, and if completed, the preheat operation is performed in step S88. In step 89, 1
It is determined whether or not the page has ended, and if it has not ended, the process returns to step 81 and the above-described processing is repeated.

In the second embodiment, the preheat data is used as the interpolation between the image data at that time and the image data of the previous line, but the preheat data according to the present invention is not limited to this. For example, instead of the interpolation circuit 195,
A circuit may be provided to generate preheat data having a predetermined relationship with the front line image data from the image data and the front line image data. As a result, the generated preheat data becomes more diverse.

Further, although the thermal transfer type recording apparatus has been described as an example in the above-mentioned first and second embodiments, the present invention can be effectively applied to an ink jet type recording apparatus.

An example of the ink jet recording apparatus will be described below.

FIG. 9 is a schematic perspective view showing a main part of an ink jet recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 9, the recording head 101 has 48 ink ejection ports (not shown) on the surface facing the recording paper 107 in the conveying direction of the recording paper 107. Further, the recording head 101 is provided with an ink path (not shown) communicating with each of the 48 ejection ports, and ink is ejected onto a substrate constituting the recording head 101 corresponding to each ink path. An electrothermal converter (heating element corresponding to the heating resistor 7) that generates thermal energy is formed. The electrothermal converter generates heat by an electric pulse applied to it in response to the driving data, whereby
A boiling film is formed on the ink, and the ink is ejected from the ejection port as bubbles are generated by the boiling film. Each ink path is provided with a common liquid chamber that communicates with them in common, and the ink stored therein is supplied to the ink path according to the ejection operation in each ink path.

The carriage 102 carries the recording head 101, and slidably engages with a pair of guide rails 103 extending parallel to the recording surface of the recording paper 107. As a result, the recording head 101 can move along the guide rail 103, and along with this movement, recording is performed by ejecting ink toward the recording surface at a predetermined timing. After the above movement, the recording paper 107 is conveyed by a predetermined amount in the direction of the arrow in the drawing, and the above movement is performed again to perform recording. By repeating such an operation, the recording paper 10
In 7, we will record sequentially.

The above-described conveyance of the recording paper 107 is carried out by a pair of conveying rollers 1 arranged above and below the recording surface.
This is done by rotating 04 and 105. Further, a platen 106 for maintaining the flatness of the recording surface is arranged on the back side of the recording surface of the recording paper 107.

The above-mentioned movement of the carriage 102 is made possible by driving, for example, a belt (not shown) mounted on the carriage 102 by a motor, and the rotation of the transport rollers 104 and 105 is also performed by the motor. It becomes possible by being transmitted to.

(Others) The present invention is particularly provided with means for generating thermal energy as energy used for ejecting ink (for example, an electrothermal converter or a laser beam) even in the ink jet recording system. The present invention provides excellent effects in a recording head and a recording apparatus of the type in which the thermal energy causes a change in ink state. This is because such a system can achieve high density recording and high definition recording.

Regarding the typical structure and principle thereof, see, for example, US Pat. No. 4,723,129 and US Pat. No. 4,740.
What is done using the basic principles disclosed in 796 is preferred. This method is a so-called on-demand type,
It can be applied to any of the continuous type, but especially in the case of the on-demand type, it can be applied to the sheet holding the liquid (ink) or the electrothermal converter arranged corresponding to the liquid path. By applying at least one drive signal corresponding to the recorded information and giving a rapid temperature rise exceeding nucleate boiling, heat energy is generated in the electrothermal converter, and film boiling is caused on the heat acting surface of the recording head. Liquid (ink) corresponding to this drive signal as a result
This is effective because bubbles can be formed inside. Due to the growth and contraction of the bubbles, liquid (ink) is ejected through the ejection openings to form at least one droplet. It is more preferable to make this drive signal into a pulse shape, because the bubble growth and contraction are immediately and appropriately performed, so that the ejection of the liquid (ink) with excellent responsiveness can be achieved. As the pulse-shaped drive signal, those described in US Pat. Nos. 4,463,359 and 4,345,262 are suitable. If the conditions described in US Pat. No. 4,313,124 of the invention relating to the rate of temperature rise on the heat acting surface are adopted, more excellent recording can be performed.

As the constitution of the recording head, in addition to the combination constitution of the discharge port, the liquid passage, and the electrothermal converter (the straight liquid passage or the right-angled liquid passage) as disclosed in the above-mentioned specifications, U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,333, U.S. Pat. No. 44, which discloses a configuration in which a heat acting portion is arranged in a bending region.
The configuration using the specification of No. 59600 is also included in the present invention. In addition, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 59-123670 discloses a configuration in which a common slit is used as a discharge portion of the electrothermal converter for a plurality of electrothermal converters, and an opening for absorbing a pressure wave of thermal energy is provided. The effect of the present invention is effective even if the configuration corresponding to the ejection portion is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 59-138461. That is, according to the present invention, recording can be surely and efficiently performed regardless of the form of the recording head.

Further, the present invention can be effectively applied to a full line type recording head having a length corresponding to the maximum width of a recording medium which can be recorded by the recording apparatus. Such a recording head may have a configuration that satisfies the length by a combination of a plurality of recording heads or a configuration as one recording head integrally formed.

In addition, even in the case of the serial type as in the above example, the recording head fixed to the main body of the apparatus or the ink jet from the main body of the apparatus is electrically connected to the main body of the apparatus by mounting the recording head. The present invention is also effective when a replaceable chip-type recording head that can be supplied or a cartridge-type recording head in which an ink tank is integrally provided in the recording head itself is used.

Further, as the constitution of the recording apparatus of the present invention, it is preferable to add ejection recovery means of the recording head, preliminary auxiliary means and the like because the effects of the present invention can be further stabilized. Specifically, heating is performed by using a capping means, a cleaning means, a pressure or suction means for the recording head, an electrothermal converter or a heating element other than this, or a combination thereof. Examples thereof include a preliminary heating unit for performing the discharge and a preliminary discharge unit for performing discharge different from the recording.

Regarding the type or number of recording heads to be mounted, for example, only one is provided corresponding to a single color ink, or a plurality of inks having different recording colors and densities are supported. A plurality of pieces may be provided. That is, for example, the recording mode of the recording apparatus is not limited to the recording mode of only the mainstream color such as black, but may be either integrally formed of the recording heads or a combination of a plurality of them. The present invention is also very effective for an apparatus provided with at least one of full-color recording modes by color mixing.

In addition, in the above-described embodiments of the present invention, the ink is described as a liquid, but an ink that solidifies at room temperature or lower and that softens or liquefies at room temperature may be used. Or, in the inkjet method, it is common to adjust the temperature of the ink itself within the range of 30 ° C. or higher and 70 ° C. or lower to control the temperature so that the viscosity of the ink is within the stable ejection range. At times, a liquid ink may be used. In addition, the temperature rise due to thermal energy is positively prevented by using it as the energy for changing the state of the ink from the solid state to the liquid state, or in order to prevent the evaporation of the ink, it is solidified and heated in a standing state. You may use the ink liquefied by. In any case, by applying heat energy such as ink that is liquefied by applying heat energy according to the recording signal and liquid ink is ejected, or that begins to solidify when it reaches the recording medium. The present invention can be applied to the case where an ink having a property of being liquefied for the first time is used. In this case, the ink is
JP 54-56847 A or JP 60-7.
As described in Japanese Patent No. 1260, it may be configured to face the electrothermal converter in a state of being held as a liquid or a solid in the concave portion or the through hole of the porous sheet. In the present invention, the most effective one for each of the above-mentioned inks is to execute the above-mentioned film boiling method.

In addition, as the form of the ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention, other than the one used as an image output terminal of information processing equipment such as a computer, a copying apparatus combined with a reader or the like, and a facsimile apparatus having a transmission / reception function can be used. It may be in a form or the like.

[0058]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the preheat data is automatically generated based on the image data once transferred to the means for storing the image data on the recording head side. The heating element is preheated based on the data.

As a result, the processing load on the preheat data transfer of the CPU is reduced. Further, for example, the shift register on the recording head side can be used as a means for storing the image data of the previous line, and the preheat data can be generated at a small cost without adding an expensive memory (RAM). ..

Furthermore, since the generation of preheat data is realized by hardware, fine preheat can be easily achieved without increasing the load on software, which is very useful for contributing to image quality.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a data processing system of a recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing details of an S / P register and a control circuit shown in FIG.

3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the system shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a timing chart of the processing shown in FIG.

FIG. 5: S at each time point in the above timing chart
It is a conceptual diagram which shows the state of the data of a / P register.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a data processing system of a recording apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

7 is a block diagram showing details of an S / P register and a control circuit shown in FIG.

8 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the system shown in FIG.

FIG. 9 is a schematic perspective view of an inkjet recording apparatus to which the present invention can be applied.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 CPU 2 ROM 3 line buffer 4 P / S control circuit 5 S / P register 5 ₁ to 5 _n flip-flops 6 latch 7 heating resistor 8 gate 9 and 19. The control circuit 10 the printhead 11 CK generator 12 switch 20 control unit 92 , 192 Flip-flop 93, 193 Inverter 94, 194 Switch 195 Interpolator

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification number Office reference number FI technical display location B41J 29/00 9113-2C B41J 3/20 116 8804-2C 29/00 G

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A recording apparatus for recording by utilizing thermal energy, comprising: a recording head having a heating element for generating the thermal energy; and recording image data corresponding to the heating element of the recording head. Of the data storage means, drive means for driving the heating element based on the image data stored in the data storage means to generate the thermal energy, and image data stored in the data storage means. ,
And a preheat control unit for causing the driving unit to drive based on the preheat data generated by the generating unit. A recording device characterized by the above. 2. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording head and the data storage unit are formed on the same substrate. 3. A recording apparatus for recording by utilizing thermal energy, comprising: a recording head having a heating element for generating the thermal energy; and a positive phase of a transfer clock corresponding to the heating element of the recording head. A register for storing image data to be transferred, a driving unit for driving the heating element based on the image data stored in the register to generate the thermal energy, and a phase opposite to the transfer clock, Sampling means for sampling the image data from the final stage of the register, and inversion data of the image data sampled by the sampling means are stored in the register as preheat data for preliminarily heating the heating element. Transfer means for transferring, and transfer of the preheat data by the transfer means to the register, Transfer control means for switching the transfer of the image data, and preheat control means for causing the drive means to drive based on the preheat data stored in the register under the control of the transfer control means, A recording device characterized by comprising. 4. The recording apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the recording head and the register are formed on the same substrate. 5. A recording apparatus for recording by utilizing thermal energy, comprising: a recording head having a heating element for generating the thermal energy; and a positive phase of a transfer clock corresponding to the heating element of the recording head. A register for storing image data to be transferred, a driving unit for driving the heating element based on the image data stored in the register to generate the thermal energy, and a phase opposite to the transfer clock, Sampling means for sampling the image data from the final stage of the register, and for preliminarily heating the heating element based on the image data sampled by the sampling means and the image data transferred to the register. Generating means for generating preheat data of the Transfer control means for switching between the transfer of the image data and the transfer of the image data, and a preheat for causing the drive means to drive based on the preheat data stored in the register under the control of the transfer control means. A recording device comprising: a control unit. 6. The recording apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the recording head and the register are formed on the same substrate. 7. The recording head according to claim 1, wherein the recording head uses the thermal energy to generate bubbles in the ink and ejects the ink based on the generation of the bubbles. The recording device according to claim 1.