JPH07299916A - Ink jet recording method and apparatus and data processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable the high speed fixing of ink by low power by providing a heating means and a means controlling the power applied to the heating means along a main scanning direction in opposed relation to the gap region of a nozzle group. CONSTITUTION:Color recording corresponding recording heads arranged longitudinally (arranged along a main scanning direction) are used and a linear heating element 63 is arranged to the scanning region opposed to the gap between a black nozzle group (Y-group) and the nozzle groups adjacent thereto, for example, a cyan nozzle group (C-group). Voltage is cyclically applied to the heating element 63 in a pulse like manner at the time of the feed of a medium 6 to be recorded to steeply raise the surface temp. of the heating element 63 and the non-recording surface of the medium 6 to be recorded coming into contact with the heating element 63 through an insulating layer is heated. By this constitution, the black ink just applied to the medium 6 to be recorded is instantaneously fixed accompanied by the feed of the medium 6 to be recorded. The heating element 63 is composed of TaN or HfB2.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording apparatus for outputting information such as characters and images on a recording medium in an information processing system such as a copying machine, a facsimile, a printer, a word processor, a personal computer and the like. The present invention relates to an ink fixing method applied to, and is particularly applied to an inkjet recording apparatus equipped with an inkjet recording head compatible with color recording and using plain paper, and capable of high-speed fixing of ink. The present invention relates to an inkjet recording method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, paper, cloth, plastic sheet, O
A recording apparatus for recording on a recording medium such as a HP sheet (hereinafter also simply referred to as recording paper) can be equipped with recording heads of various recording methods, for example, a wire dot method, a thermal method, a thermal transfer method, and an inkjet method. It has been proposed as a form.

Among these methods, the ink jet method is one of the low-noise non-impact methods for ejecting ink and directly adhering it to recording paper. It is a continuous method depending on the method of forming ink droplets and the method of generating ejection energy. It is roughly classified into a charge particle control method and a spray method and an on-demand method (including a piezo method, a spark method and a bubble jet method).

In the continuous system, ink is continuously ejected and only necessary liquid droplets are charged. The charged droplets adhere to the recording paper, and the rest is wasted. On the other hand, in the on-demand method, ink is ejected only when printing is necessary, so that there is no waste of ink and the inside of the device does not get dirty. Moreover, since the on-demand method starts and stops the ink ejection, the response frequency is lower than that of the continuous method. Therefore, increasing the number of nozzles realizes high speed. Therefore, most of the recording devices currently on the market are of the on-demand type, and a recording device equipped with such an ink jet type recording head is capable of high-density and high-speed recording operation.
A printer as an output terminal of the information processing system, for example, an output terminal such as a copying machine, a facsimile, an electronic typewriter, a word processor, a workstation, or a handy or portable printer provided in a personal computer, a host computer, an optical disk device, a video device, or the like. It is used as and is commercialized. In this case, the inkjet recording apparatus has a configuration corresponding to the function, usage pattern, etc. peculiar to these apparatuses.

Generally, an ink jet recording apparatus comprises a recording means (recording head), a carriage on which an ink tank is mounted, a conveying means for conveying recording paper, and a control means for controlling these. Then, the recording head for ejecting ink droplets from the plurality of ejection ports is serially scanned in the direction (main scanning direction) orthogonal to the recording paper conveyance direction (sub-scanning direction), while the recording paper is set to the recording width when not recording. The same amount is intermittently conveyed. This recording method is
Ink is ejected onto a recording sheet according to a recording signal to perform recording, and it is widely used as a quiet recording method with low running cost. Further, by using a recording head in which a large number of nozzles for ejecting ink are arranged in a straight line in the sub-scanning direction, the recording head scans the recording paper once to perform recording with a width corresponding to the number of nozzles. It Therefore, it is possible to speed up the recording operation.

Further, in the case of a color ink jet recording apparatus, a color image is formed by superimposing ink droplets ejected by recording heads of a plurality of colors. Generally, when performing color recording, yellow (Y),
There are required four types of recording heads and ink cartridges corresponding to the three primary colors of magenta (M) and cyan (C) or the four primary colors including black (B). Recently, an apparatus capable of forming an image in full color, which is equipped with such a recording head of 3 to 4 colors, has been put into practical use.

As described above, the recording head using the electrothermal converting element as the energy generating means can generate bubbles in the ink in the liquid passage in a one-to-one correspondence with the driving electric pulse signal, and can be immediately and appropriately used. Since it is possible to cause the bubbles to grow and contract, it is possible to achieve ink droplet ejection with excellent responsiveness. In addition, the recording head can be easily made compact, and the advantages of IC technology and microfabrication technology, which have been significantly improved in technology and reliability in the recent semiconductor field, can be fully utilized, and high-density mounting is easy. This is advantageous because the manufacturing cost is low.

[0008]

However, in a conventional ink jet recording apparatus, especially in a color ink jet recording apparatus, in order to sequentially overprint inks of a plurality of colors, ink is applied to a recording medium (usually paper). Problems such as bleeding between each other and generation of wrinkles (cockling) on the recording medium due to the ejection of a large amount of ink have occurred.

In order to solve such a problem, in a conventional color printer, in order to achieve high-speed fixing of ink, it is necessary to use a dedicated coated paper in which the surface of the paper is coated to improve the ink absorption characteristics. The method of forcibly accelerating the fixing of the ink has been taken by designating or by using a fixing device using a heating wire.

However, the former method, that is, the use of a dedicated coated paper, has a drawback that the cost of the coated paper is high, or the user is limited because it is a special paper such as coated paper. In addition, the latter fixing device consumes a considerable amount of electric power (usually about several hundred watts) by using a heating wire, and since the recording medium passes over the heating wire heater, it guarantees safety against fire. It is pointed out that there are drawbacks such as difficulty in

Further, in order to eliminate the need for using a dedicated coated paper or a fixing device, a method of adding a nonionic surfactant such as acetylenol to the ink to accelerate the penetration of the ink into the paper is also adopted. ing. However, in general, when a surfactant is added to the ink, the penetrability into paper is promoted, and bleeding due to overprinting of multicolor inks such as color images is avoided, but on the other hand, the OD value is lowered, especially for black ink. There is a drawback that the quality of black characters is degraded. Therefore, it is a color printer and it is difficult to provide high quality black characters.

Therefore, in view of the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks, the present invention provides a high-speed ink fixing method that enables high-speed fixing of ink with low power, enables downsizing of the apparatus, and at the same time secures safety against fire. An inkjet recording apparatus to which the method can be applied, and an information processing system using the apparatus as an output unit are provided.

[0013]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an ink jet recording apparatus according to the present invention is a color recording type recording head having a plurality of nozzle groups arranged in a direction orthogonal to a main scanning direction. An ink jet recording apparatus having a carriage for mounting a recording medium and a conveying means for conveying a recording medium in the sub-scanning direction, wherein the recording head records input image information on the recording medium. Nozzle group has a gap area between the black nozzle group and a nozzle group corresponding to another color adjacent to the black nozzle group, further facing the gap area, and in the main scanning direction. Along with a heating means,
Heating control means for controlling electric power applied to the heat generating means is provided.

Preferably, the plurality of nozzle groups includes a magenta nozzle group, a yellow nozzle group, a cyan nozzle group, and the black nozzle group. Also,
It is preferable that the conveying means conveys the recording medium in close contact with the heat generating means.

The structure of the heat generating means is as follows: a resistance heating element linearly formed on an alumina substrate, a resistance heating element linearly formed on a glass substrate, or a resistance linearly formed on a ceramic substrate. It preferably comprises a heating element.

The structure of the heating control means corresponds to the structure of the heat generating means, in which electric power is applied to the heat generating means when the recording medium is conveyed, and a voltage is applied to the heat generating means in a pulse of a predetermined cycle. Or a voltage is applied to the heat generating means in units of half-wave cycle of commercial frequency.

Preferably, a substrate temperature detecting means for detecting the temperature of the substrate is provided, and the heating control means varies the pulse width of the applied voltage pulse according to the temperature detected by the substrate temperature detecting means. It is controlled, or the conduction angle in the unit of half-wave cycle is variably controlled.

Preferably, the substrate temperature detecting means comprises a temperature detecting element embedded in the substrate,
The substrate temperature is predicted using the cumulative number of paper feeds for each print scan and the number of prints as a parameter, or the substrate temperature is predicted using the cumulative number of paper feeds for each print scan, the number of prints, and the black ink ejection amount as parameters. It is desirable to predict temperature.

Furthermore, it is preferable that the recording head has an electrothermal converter that causes film boiling in the ink, as a means for generating energy for ejecting the ink.

An information processing system according to the present invention is characterized in that it is provided with an output means composed of the ink jet recording apparatus.

The information processing system of the present invention is, for example, a copying machine, a facsimile, an electronic typewriter, a word processor, a workstation, a personal computer, a host computer, an optical disk device, a video device, etc., but is not limited to these. Absent. In this case, the inkjet recording apparatus has a configuration corresponding to the function, usage pattern, etc. peculiar to these systems.

An ink jet recording method according to the present invention is a method for performing color recording on a recording medium using an ink jet recording head, wherein black ink is ejected onto the recording medium by the ink jet recording head, and then, And the step of drying the ejected black ink before ejecting another color of ink. Preferably, the step of drying the black ink is performed when the recording medium is conveyed.

[0023]

The ink jet recording apparatus according to the present invention is
A scan that uses color recording-compatible recording heads arranged vertically (arranged along the main scanning direction) and opposes the gap between the black nozzle group and a nozzle group (for example, cyan nozzle group) adjacent to the black nozzle group. A linear heating element is arranged in the area. A voltage is applied to the heating element periodically and in a pulsed manner when the recording medium is conveyed, whereby the surface temperature of the heating element rises rapidly, and the non-heating of the recording medium contacting the heating element via an insulating layer occurs. The recording surface side is heated. As a result, the black ink just jetted onto the recording medium is immediately fixed as the recording medium is conveyed.

The recording head using the electrothermal converting element (electrothermal converting element) as the energy generating means can generate bubbles in the ink in the liquid passage in a one-to-one correspondence with the driving electric pulse signal, and also immediately. And properly grow bubbles
Cause contraction. Therefore, it is possible to achieve ink droplet ejection with excellent responsiveness. In addition, the recording head can be easily made compact, and the advantages of IC technology and microfabrication technology, which have been significantly improved in technology and reliability in the recent semiconductor field, can be fully utilized, and high-density mounting is easy. This is advantageous because the manufacturing cost is low.

[0025]

[Embodiment] In this embodiment, the focus is particularly on the fixing of black ink. The reason for this is that in printers, the quality of black characters is absolute as a product specification,
It is necessary to select an ink that does not cause problems such as bleeding. Ink components include urea, dye, water,
And organic solvents such as glycerin, thiodiethylene glycol and isopropyl alcohol, but especially Y
In the MC color ink, a nonionic surfactant such as acetylenol is added in order to promote penetration into paper. However, as described above, when a surfactant is added, the penetrability into paper is promoted and bleeding due to overprinting of multicolor inks such as color images is avoided, but there is a drawback that the OD value decreases. Therefore,
In order to be a color printer and to maintain the quality of black characters as high as a monochrome printer, it is possible to add a surfactant to the YMC color ink, but not to the black ink. . With such a combination of inks, when a color image is printed using the recording head having the structure according to the present invention shown in FIG. 2, first, pixels corresponding to black are printed, and then C is accompanied by paper feeding.
Pixels are struck in the order of → M → Y. If the black ink is completely fixed during the time elapsed from when the black ink is ejected to when the cyan ink is ejected next to this area, no problem will occur. Considering the case where a title of black characters and the like exists in the area with the background of, bleeding naturally occurs at the boundary portion of both black and cyan ink. In fact, it takes at least several tens of times before the surfactant-free black ink used in this example dries.
It took seconds. Therefore, it is effective to immediately dry the black ink by the fixing method of the present invention as described below. <Embodiment 1> FIG. 1 shows a schematic structure of a color printer which is an example of an ink jet recording apparatus according to the present invention.

This printer device includes a color ink cartridge 10 and a black ink cartridge 11
Has a carriage 1 which can be mounted. Therefore, by mounting the cartridges 10 and 11 on the carriage 1, these cartridges are detachably coupled to the inkjet recording head 2 attached to the lower end of the carriage 1. Further, the carriage 1 moves in the width direction (main scanning direction) along the guide shafts 4 and 5 by the driving force of a carriage motor (hereinafter referred to as a CR motor) (not shown).

The recording paper 6 is fed by the paper feed roller 8 and the paper pressing roller 9 at the beginning of the printing operation, and thereafter, in conjunction with the operation of the carriage 1, in the direction of arrow B (sub scanning direction).
It is transported intermittently by a fixed distance. Further, a paper discharge roller 7 is provided on the paper discharge side to stably maintain the paper conveyance path.
Such operation is achieved by a line feed motor (hereinafter referred to as LF motor) (not shown).

FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing the structure of the nozzle surface of the ink jet recording head 2. In this embodiment, nozzle surfaces corresponding to a plurality of colors are arranged along the secondary running direction to form a nozzle group for use corresponding to each color. That is, the yellow nozzle group (Y group), the magenta nozzle group (M
Group) and the cyan nozzle group (C group) are each 24
The nozzle (N1 in the drawing) and the black nozzle group (K group) are configured by 64 nozzles (N2 in the drawing). Further, the separation distance between the Y group and the M group and the separation distance L1 between the M group and the C group correspond to 8 nozzles. On the other hand, the separation distance between the B group and the C group is 16
It corresponds to a nozzle. The nozzle pitch of this embodiment is 360 DIP (dot per inch) for all four colors. Therefore, in the case of color printing, the above-mentioned conveyance of the recording paper corresponds to 24 nozzles, that is, 0.067 inch (1.69 mm) each. In the case of monochrome printing, it corresponds to 64 nozzles, that is, 0.1
78 inches (4.52 mm) each.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram for explaining a color image printing method by the recording head shown in FIG. 2 of the present invention. In the figure, 1 pass, 2 passes, etc. are the numbers of the scans (main scans) in the width direction of the head on the recording medium in FIG. In the example, paper is fed by 0.067 inches. As shown in the figure, in this embodiment, the K head uses only the first 24 nozzles and the latter 40 nozzles are unused.

On the other hand, FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram for explaining a printing method when only black (BK) ink such as a text document is used. In this case, yellow (Y),
Magenta (M) and cyan (C) are unused,
Since only BK is used, 64 nozzle widths are printed per pass, and therefore, paper feeding is also performed for 64 nozzles, that is, 0.178 inch. As is clear from the above, in the present embodiment, the printing speed in monochrome printing is 2.67 times (64/24) as compared with printing in color images.

Further, in the present embodiment, when a monochrome image or a text and a color image are mixed,
As shown in FIG. 5, corresponding to 64 rasters to be printed next,
When there is no data for Y, M, and C (that is, when the data are all 0), one main scan printing is performed using all 64 nozzles of BK, and then paper feeding for 64 nozzles is performed. That is, the same printing operation as in the case of monochrome printing is performed, and the recording speed for color and monochrome mixed images is increased.

The outline of the operation of the printer embodying the present invention has been described above. Next, the fixing mechanism which is the gist of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the drawings, the same reference numerals denote the same units or elements, or units or elements that provide the same function.

FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of the fixing device 61 according to the present invention. The upper diagram is a plan view as seen from above the heater, and the lower diagram is a side sectional view of the heater. In the figure, 62 is an alumina, glass or ceramic substrate, 63 is tantalum nitride (TaN), hafnium boride (Hf).
A resistance heating element such as B2), and a non-hygroscopic and smooth surface fluorine-based material such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) 64 are suitable. The surface coat plays a role of preventing electric shock, maintaining water resistance of the heating element, and protecting the surface. Reference numeral 66 denotes electrodes located at both ends of the heating element, and voltage application to this heater is realized by contact between the electrode 66 and a spring contact on the main body side or a leaf spring contact (both not shown). In the embodiment, the total length of the heating element is long enough to cover the A4 size.

FIG. 7 shows the positional relationship between the fixing device and the recording paper in the first embodiment of the present invention.
It is the figure which looked at 1 and penetrated. In the figure, 6 is the recording paper, and the heating element is arranged in the gap between the black nozzle and the cyan nozzle, but the actual width of the heating element need not be limited to this interval,
There is no problem if it is a little wider than this.

FIG. 8 shows the configuration of FIG. 7 viewed from the side, and the same reference numerals indicate the same objects as those described above. In addition to this, the print head 2, the paper feed roller 8, the paper pressing roller 9, the paper discharge lower roller (or roller) 71, and the paper discharge upper roller (or roller) 72 are shown in this figure. As is clear from the figure, the recording paper 6 is first printed by the black nozzles and then conveyed by the paper feed roller 8 for a distance corresponding to 24 nozzles. In this way, cyan is printed this time in the area where black was previously printed, and thereafter, ink is similarly overprinted in the order of magenta and yellow.

According to the present invention, in the above-mentioned sequence, as soon as the black ink having the poor fixing property is hit, the back surface of the recording paper is heated during the transportation of the recording paper, and the drying of the ink is promoted. In this way, when the cyan ink is struck, the black ink is already dry and bleeding between the two inks is prevented. Regarding the concern about bleeding between cyan, magenta and yellow,
These inks are unnecessary because they have good penetrability into the recording paper due to the addition of the surfactant as described above.

FIG. 9 shows the temperature rise of the heating element. As described above, in the present invention, the heating of the heating element is performed during the paper conveyance and is not performed during the printing. The heating element is heated in the heat cycle 10 during the paper conveyance, and the maximum temperature at the time of heating is Tp of about 3
The temperature rises to around 00 ° C. In the embodiment, the cycle t0 is set to several milliseconds to several tens of milliseconds, and specific values differ depending on the paper feed speed, ink components, etc., and the optimum value is set each time. For example, in the embodiment, it takes 100 milliseconds to feed the paper corresponding to 24 nozzles, that is, 1.69 mm. Therefore, if the heating cycle is set to 10 milliseconds, 10 times of heating are executed by one paper feeding. That is, one heat is executed per 169 micrometers.

The application time of the voltage to the heating element in one heat is 10 to 20% of the cycle. For example,
When the cycle t0 is 10 milliseconds, power is supplied to the heating element for 1 to 2 milliseconds. In the embodiment, for example, the paper is fed 151 times while printing one sheet of A4 size recording paper, during which the temperature of the heater substrate (base temperature Tb) gradually rises as shown in FIG. In the present invention, it is required that the temperature of the heating element rises instantly to a high temperature at the same time as the application of the pulse, and therefore the substrate 62 needs to be selected from a material having a low thermal conductivity that does not release heat. .
In the embodiment, the substrate 62 is made of alumina, glass or ceramic. Although alumina has a higher thermal conductivity than glass or ceramics, the recording paper is actually a heating element 6.
Since it is conveyed not only in the three parts but in contact with the entire surface of the substrate, the influence of the base temperature of the substrate itself on the fixability cannot be ignored. In the case of alumina, the temperature rise of the substrate has a steeper gradient than that of glass or ceramic, and the contribution of the substrate to the fixing property is larger than that of glass or ceramic.

Such an increase in the base temperature does not only depend on the material used for the substrate, but actually depends on the amount of black ink applied to the recording paper. That is, when the amount of ejected ink is large, the amount of heat used for drying the water in the ink is large, so that the rise in the substrate temperature is slower than when the amount of ejected ink is small.

As is clear from the above description, the base temperature of the substrate gradually rises as the paper is conveyed, and thereby the peak temperature of FIG. 9 also rises. That is, excess energy will be provided for fusing. Therefore, in the present invention, the pulse width for supplying electric power to the heating element is controlled by using the number of times the paper is conveyed and the amount of black ink ejected as parameters. That is, the control pulse width is reduced as the base temperature rises, and the energy input to the heating element is suppressed. As a result, the peak temperature in FIG. 9 is always kept almost constant, and energy saving can be achieved at the same time.

FIG. 10 shows an example of a control circuit for achieving the present invention. In the figure, 91 is a commercial power source, 92 is a diode bridge for full-scale rectification, 93 is a rectifying capacitor, 61
Is a heater of the present invention, 94 is a power FET, 95 is a means for monitoring the number of paper feeds and the number of recordings, 96 is means for monitoring the amount of black ink ejected, 97 is the output of 95 and 96, and the pulse width is determined. Pulse width calculation unit, 98
Is a pulse width control unit that actually controls the pulse width based on the output of 97. In the embodiment, the recording number monitor means 9
5, the black ink ejection amount monitor 96, and the pulse width calculator 97 are executed by a microprocessor (not shown) which controls the sequence control and print control of the main body.

FIG. 11 shows the relationship between the substrate temperature Tb and the pulse width P. In the embodiment, when the substrate temperature is low, the substrate temperature is raised to a predetermined temperature T1 by preheating, and printing is permitted at this point. That is, the heating element 63 is driven with a predetermined pulse width to raise the surface temperature of the heater 61 to the standby temperature. This is intended to improve the fixing condition by raising the substrate temperature to some extent, and to prevent the heating element from being damaged by applying an excessive pulse width to the heating element 63. In the case where the temperature detecting element is not incorporated in the substrate 62 as in the case of this embodiment (an example in which the temperature detecting element is incorporated in the substrate is introduced in another embodiment of the present invention), it is possible to detect the substrate temperature. Therefore, it is conceivable to separately provide an element for detecting the ambient temperature in the main body, or to use a temperature detecting element (for controlling the drive pulse width of the head) which is often provided in the recording head. As is apparent from the figure, as the substrate temperature increases, the pulse width, that is, the on-time of the FET 94 in FIG. 10 decreases. This is a result of considering the effect of the substrate temperature itself on the fixing as described above and the consideration of keeping the peak reaching temperature constant as described in FIG.

Next, the safety of the heater used in the present invention will be described. As described above, the heater according to the present invention is formed on an insulating substrate and its heat capacity is extremely low.
Therefore, for example, the FET that is the switching element of FIG.
Even if 94 is destroyed on the short-circuit side, the heating element 63 is broken in an instant. Therefore, compared with the conventional fixing device using a heating wire, its safety is guaranteed by the inherent property of the heater, even without providing a safety device such as a temperature fuse or a thermoswitch.

<Embodiment 2> As a heater substrate temperature detecting method different from the above, as shown in FIG. 12, a recess is formed in a part of the substrate, and a temperature detecting element 102 such as a thermistor is embedded therein to directly detect the temperature of the substrate. A method of detecting temperature is devised. 12, the same numbers as in FIG. 6 indicate the same elements. The above figure is a plan view of the thermistor 102, which is a temperature detecting element, seen from above the heater. 103 is a thermistor lead wire. On the other hand, the following figure shows a side sectional view of this heater. Actually, in order to fix the thermistor 102 in the recess, a heat-resistant resin material is filled in the recess.

FIG. 13 shows another embodiment which replaces the energization control circuit for the fixing device 61 shown in FIG. The energization control to the heater is performed by the phase control of the triac 131,
As in the case described above, the phase angle calculation unit 132 calculates the energization angle to the heater 61 by obtaining outputs from the monitor unit 95 for the number of paper feeds and the number of recorded sheets and the monitor unit 96 for the ink ejection amount. Based on the phase angle, the phase angle control unit 133 receives the trigger signal 135 from the zero-cross detection circuit 134, starts the timer for phase angle control, and turns on the triac 131 when the timer is up. Due to its nature, the triac 131 automatically turns off near the zero cross point of the commercial power source 91 and maintains the off state until the next on timing. In this example, as shown in FIG. 14, the control phase angle D increases as the substrate temperature rises.
By enlarging, the energization time of the triac 131 is shortened and the input energy is reduced. However, in the case of this example as well, for the same reason as in the case of the example of FIG. 11, the minimum phase control angle (indicated by Da in the drawing) is set to prevent an accident due to excessive energy input to the heater.

In the above embodiment, the recording head using the electrothermal converter (electrothermal conversion element) as the energy generating means is used. Therefore, it is possible to generate bubbles in the ink in the liquid path in a one-to-one correspondence with the drive electric pulse signal, and to immediately and appropriately grow and contract the bubbles, which is particularly responsive. Ink drop ejection can be achieved. In addition, the recording head can be easily made compact, and the advantages of IC technology and microfabrication technology, which have been significantly improved in technology and reliability in the recent semiconductor field, can be fully utilized, and high-density mounting is easy. This is advantageous because the manufacturing cost is low.

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

Regarding its typical structure and principle, see, for example, US Pat. Nos. 4,723,129 and 4740.
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 recording 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 in a one-to-one correspondence
It is effective because bubbles can be formed inside. Due to the growth and contraction of the bubbles, the liquid (ink) is ejected through the ejection opening 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 linear liquid passage or the right-angled liquid passage) as disclosed in the above-mentioned respective specifications. US Pat. No. 4,558,333, US Pat. No. 4,558,333, which discloses a configuration in which a heat acting portion is arranged in a bending region.
The structure 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 JP-A-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 from the main body of the apparatus is electrically connected to the main body of the apparatus by being mounted on the main body of the apparatus. 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 the ejection recovery means of the recording head, the 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 unit, a cleaning unit, a pressure or suction unit 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 and 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 it may be either the recording head is integrally formed or a plurality of combinations may be used. The present invention is also extremely 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 system, it is common to control 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. Sometimes, a liquid ink may be used. In addition, the temperature rise due to thermal energy is positively prevented by using it as the energy of the state change 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 the standing state. You may use the ink liquefied by. In any case, by applying thermal energy such as ink that is liquefied by applying thermal 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-A-54-56847 or JP-A-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, the ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention may be used as an image output terminal of information processing equipment such as a computer, a copying apparatus combined with a reader or the like, or a facsimile apparatus having a transmitting / receiving function. It may be a form or the like.

And, without being limited to the above fields,
The ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention may take a form used as an apparatus for printing a cloth made of cotton, silk, rayon, acetate, nylon, polyester fiber or the like and a mixed spinning cloth thereof.

[0057]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In a recording apparatus using an inkjet recording head compatible with color recording in which nozzle groups corresponding to each color of color ink are arranged in a straight line, high-quality black printing and a color image can be superimposed on plain paper. It is possible to provide an inkjet recording method and device.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an inkjet recording apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram for explaining a nozzle array of an inkjet recording head according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining an example of a color printing method using an inkjet recording head according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an example of a method for recording a black-only document by an inkjet recording head according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining an example of a method of printing a document in which only a black portion and a color image portion are mixed by an inkjet recording head according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a front view for explaining an example of a fixing heater applied to an inkjet recording head according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram for explaining a positional relationship between a recording medium and a fixing heater applied to an inkjet recording head according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a side view for explaining a recording operation in the inkjet recording apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing how the temperature of a heating element applied to an inkjet recording head according to the present invention changes.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram for explaining an example of a drive control circuit for a fixing heater that is applied to an inkjet recording head according to the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing the relationship between the substrate temperature and the pulse width controlled by the drive control circuit of the fixing heater applied to the ink jet recording head according to the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a front view showing a second embodiment of a fixing heater applied to an ink jet recording head according to the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram for explaining another example of the drive control circuit of the fixing heater applied to the ink jet recording head according to the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a relationship between a substrate temperature and a phase control angle controlled by another example of the drive control circuit of the fixing heater applied to the inkjet recording head according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Carriage 2 Inkjet Recording Head 3 Cartridge Guide 4 Guide Axis 5 Guide Axis 6 Recording Paper 7 Paper Ejection Roller 8 Paper Feed Roller 9 Paper Pressing Roller 10 Color Ink Cartridge 11 Black Cartridge 61 Heater 62 Substrate 63 Resistance Heater

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical display location B41J 2/12 B41J 3/04 103 B 104 F

Claims (19)

[Claims] 1. A carriage for mounting a color-recording recording head having a plurality of nozzle groups arranged in a direction orthogonal to the main scanning direction, and a conveyance for conveying a recording medium in the sub-scanning direction. An inkjet recording apparatus for recording input image information on a recording medium by the recording head, wherein the plurality of nozzle groups are a black nozzle group and another color adjacent to the black nozzle group. A heating unit that has a gap region between the nozzle group and the heating unit, faces the gap region, and extends along the main scanning direction; and a heating control unit that controls the electric power applied to the heating unit. An ink jet recording apparatus comprising: 2. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of nozzle groups includes a magenta nozzle group, a yellow nozzle group, a cyan nozzle group, and the black nozzle group. Inkjet recording device. 3. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the conveying unit conveys the recording medium in close contact with the heat generating unit. 4. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heat generating means comprises a resistance heating element linearly formed on an alumina substrate. 5. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heat generating means comprises a resistance heating element linearly formed on a glass substrate. 6. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heat generating means comprises a resistance heating element linearly formed on a ceramic substrate. 7. The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heating control unit applies power to the heat generating unit when the recording medium is conveyed. 8. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heating control unit applies a voltage to the heat generating unit in a pulse shape of a predetermined cycle. 9. The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heating control unit applies a voltage to the heating unit in units of half-wave cycles of a commercial frequency. . 10. The recording apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising a substrate temperature detecting means for detecting the temperature of the substrate, wherein the heating control means is responsive to the temperature detected by the substrate temperature detecting means. An ink jet recording apparatus, wherein the pulse width of the applied voltage pulse is variably controlled. 11. The recording apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising a substrate temperature detecting means for detecting the temperature of the substrate, wherein the heating control means is responsive to the temperature detected by the substrate temperature detecting means. An ink jet recording apparatus, wherein the conduction angle of each half-wave cycle is variably controlled in response to a detected temperature. 12. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the substrate temperature detecting means is a temperature detecting element embedded in the substrate. 13. The recording apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the substrate temperature detecting unit predicts the substrate temperature using the cumulative number of paper feeds for each print scan and the number of recording sheets as parameters. Inkjet recording device. 14. The recording apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the substrate temperature detecting means sets the substrate temperature with the cumulative number of paper feeds for each printing scan, the number of recordings, and the amount of black ink ejected as parameters. An ink jet recording apparatus characterized by predicting. 15. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording head is a means for generating energy for ejecting the ink, and an electric heat generating film boiling in the ink. An inkjet recording apparatus having a converter. 16. An information processing system, comprising: an output unit including the inkjet recording device according to claim 1. Description: 17. A method for performing color recording on a recording medium by using an inkjet recording head, wherein a black ink is ejected onto the recording medium by the inkjet recording head, and then another color ink is ejected. An ink jet recording method comprising the step of drying the ejected black ink until the above. 18. The ink jet recording method according to claim 17, wherein the step of drying the black ink is performed when the recording medium is conveyed. 19. The method according to claim 17, wherein the ink jet recording head is a color recording-compatible recording head having a plurality of nozzle groups arranged along a direction orthogonal to a main scanning direction, The plurality of nozzle groups has a gap area between the black nozzle group and a nozzle group corresponding to another color adjacent to the black nozzle group, and further faces the gap area, and the main scanning is performed. An ink jet recording method comprising: a heat generating unit along a direction; and a heating control unit controlling the electric power applied to the heat generating unit.