JPH0584929A - Control method in ink-jet plotter - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent jamming phenomenon by eliminating drying of a nozzle even if an image ratio of printing data is low, by constituting the title method so that purge treatment of an ink-jet head is performed at a home position during printing operation. CONSTITUTION:In a controller, a head 6 is situated at a home position H, then a movement of the head 6 and counting of a timer are begun and a printing treatment process is entered. When the head 6 has completed printing of one line and stopped at the final end of a printing sphere, printing paper 4 for one dot is carried, the head 6 is moved in the direction of the home position H, the printing is performed, a printing operation is suspended by passing through a starting end of a printing sphere 32 and the printing paper for one line width is carried. When the head 6 arrives at the home position H, the head 6 is suspended, whether or not printing data is in existence is decided, when decision is given as denial, purge treatment is performed and the same is entered into a waiting condition. When decidision is given as affirmation, if counting is within a fixed time, the head 6 is moved within the printing sphere and if the counting is after the lapse of time, the head is moved by performing purge treatment.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a control method for preventing nozzle drying in an inkjet head.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional inkjet plotter is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5, the inkjet head 6 reciprocates in the direction perpendicular to the conveying direction of the sheet 4 wound around the platen roller 2. This reciprocating motion is always performed starting from the home position H. In the above plotter, a purging process is generally performed to prevent the nozzles of the inkjet head 6 from drying. This purging process is performed at the home position H outside the printing area so as not to dry the tip portion of the nozzle of the inkjet head 6.
This is an operation of ejecting a small amount of ink from the nozzle or absorbing the ink, and the ejected ink is received by the ink receiving portion 34 facing the nozzle. Conventionally, the purging process is performed when the power of the plotter is turned on or in a standby state for printing (printing), and is not performed during printing.

[0003]

When the image ratio of the drawing data is low, there is a nozzle that is not used, and this nozzle may dry and the nozzle may be clogged. In addition, since the inkjet head moves during image formation, the nozzle is easily dried, and there is a defect that the nozzle is clogged. The present invention aims to eliminate the above defects.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, an inkjet head is reciprocated in a direction parallel to the axial direction of the platen roller from a home position as a starting point, while the platen roller is moved by a predetermined pitch. In a control method for an inkjet plotter that rotates and conveys paper wound on a platen roller and prints print data on the paper, purge processing of the inkjet head is performed at the home position during printing operation. Is.

[0005]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The structure of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 2 denotes a platen roller of the inkjet plotter 1, which is rotatably supported by a machine body (not shown) of the plotter 1. A support shaft of the platen roller 2 is connected to an output shaft of an X motor 10 via a rotation transmission mechanism 8.

On the machine body, Y-axis guides 12 and 14 are installed so as to face each other in parallel with the axial direction of the platen roller 2, and a head cursor is movably provided on the Y-axis guides 12 and 14 along the Y-axis guides 12 and 14. 16 is attached. An inkjet head 6 is mounted on the head cursor 16.

The head 6 has a plurality of nozzles 18 arranged in the vertical direction with a gap of one dot therebetween, and these nozzles 18 face the surface of the platen roller 2 with a proper gap. ing. The body has the Y-axis guide 1
Belt pulleys 20 (only one of which is shown) are rotatably supported at the ends of the belt pulleys 2 and 14, and an endless timing belt 22 is stretched between the belt pulleys 20.

The head cursor 16 is connected to the upper horizontal portion of the timing belt 22. The support shaft of the pulley 20 is connected to the output shaft of the Y motor 24 via a rotation transmission mechanism. The input shafts of encoders 26 and 28 are connected to the output shafts of the XY motors 10 and 24, and the rotation amount of the platen roller 2 and the Y-axis guide 1 of the head 6 are connected.
The movement amounts along 2 and 14 are configured to be fed back to the controller 30.

The controller 30 is wound around the platen roller 2 by the feedback signal and is conveyed in a predetermined direction by the rotation of the platen roller 2.
Of the carriage from the reference position on the X-axis and the head 6
Is configured to be able to recognize the amount of movement from the reference position on the Y axis.

An ink receiving portion 34 is fixed to the machine body so as to face a home position H, which is a reference position on the Y axis of the head 6, which is out of a print area 32 on the Y axis of the head 6. It is set up. When the head 6 moves to the home position H, the nozzle 18 of the head 6 faces the ink receiving portion 34. As shown in FIG. 5, the XY motors 10, 24 and the head 6 are connected to a controller 30 via a driver and an input / output device 36, and are controlled by the controller 30.

Next, the printing operation of the ink jet plotter 1 will be described with reference to the flow chart shown in FIG. The plotter 1 enters the printing operation from the label 1 of FIG. 1, and the controller 30 drives the Y motor 24 to move the head 6 in the −Y direction along the Y-axis guides 12 and 14, and the head 6 is moved. The home position H is set (step 2). Next, the controller 30 causes the head 6
Is moved in the + Y direction, that is, in the head print area 32 direction (step 3). The controller 30, in step 4,
A timer count is started at the same time when the movement of the head 6 is started.

The printing process of the drawing area 32 in step 4 comprises the following steps. The controller 30 determines whether or not the head 6 has passed the starting end F of the printing area 32,
When the determination is affirmative, the ink ejection operation of the nozzles 18 of the head 6 is controlled based on the print data transferred from the host computer 38, and printing is started on the paper 4 wound around the platen roller 2.

Next, the controller 30 judges whether or not the printing for the length of one line is completed, and if the judgment is affirmative, the controller 30 stops the printing operation of the head 6 and the Y motor 24 Stop the drive,
At the terminal end E of the printing area 32, the head 6 is stopped. Next, the controller 30 drives the X motor 10 to rotate the platen roller 2 by one dot in a predetermined direction and conveys the paper 4 by one dot in the X-axis direction. Next, the controller 30 moves the head 6 toward the home position H, and the head 6 performs printing during this movement.

Next, the controller 30 judges whether or not the head 6 has passed the starting end F of the printing area 32, and if the judgment is affirmative, the printing operation of the head 6 is stopped and the X motor 10 is driven. Then, the sheet conveyance for one line width D, that is, for the nozzle width D in FIG. 4, is started. Further, when the head 6 passes the boundary F, the controller 30 decelerates the movement of the head 6 in the above-mentioned F-H section 40.

Next, the controller 30 executes step 6
Then, it is determined whether or not the head 6 has reached the home position H, and when the determination is affirmative, the head 6 is stopped (step 7). The controller 30 then, in step 8,
If it is judged whether there is print data or not, and if the judgment is negative, the page process is carried out in step 14 and then a standby state is entered. When the determination in step 8 is affirmative, the controller 30 determines in step 9 whether a predetermined time (about 15 seconds) has elapsed.

If a negative decision is made at this time, the controller 30 continues counting the timer (step 12), and the controller 30 drives the Y motor 24 to move the head 6 toward the print area 32 (step 13). , Return to step 5. If the determination in step 9 is affirmative, the controller 30 resets the timer together with the reset timer (step 1
0), the page process is performed (step 11), and the process returns to step 3.

[0017]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the purging process is regularly performed during the image formation, the nozzle can be prevented from being dried and the clogging phenomenon can be prevented even if the image ratio of the image formation data is low. There is an effect.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart.

FIG. 2 is an external view of a plotter.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a head operation.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a head operation.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Plotter 2 Platen Roller 4 Paper 6 Inkjet Head 8 Rotation Transmission Mechanism 10 X Motor 12 Y Axis Guide 14 Y Axis Guide 16 Cursor 18 Nozzle 20 Pulley 22 Belt 24 Y Motor 26 Encoder 28 Encoder 30 Controller 32 Printing Area 34 Ink Receiver

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An ink jet head is reciprocated in a direction parallel to an axial direction of a platen roller from a home position as a starting point, and a platen roller is rotated by a predetermined pitch to convey a sheet wound around the platen roller,
A method for controlling an inkjet plotter that prints print data on a sheet, wherein the inkjet head is purged at a home position during a printing operation. 2. A control method for an inkjet plotter, wherein the purging process is carried out every time a predetermined time elapses.