JPH09109381A - Apparatus and method for ink jet printing - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To suitably make adhere treatment liquid to the surface to be recorded in an ink jet printer using a head capable of forming a recording dot by discharging ink from a plurality of discharge ports and a head for the liquid having the same constitution as that of the recording head by forming treatment liquid dot by discharging the liquid for enhancing the ink fixing properties onto the medium. SOLUTION: This apparatus for ink jet printing comprises OR calculating means 709 for calculating OR of drive data of a plurality of recording heads, differentiating means 710 for differentiating the output, AND and OR calculating means 711 for calculating AND and OF of the drive data and the differentiated output, and dither processing means 712 for dither-processing the output, wherein the treatment liquid head is discharged based on the output. Thus, the liquid is discharged in response to the sum of the discharged ink, the discharge port for discharging the liquid is not extremely deviated, but adheres the suitable amount at the suitable position responsive to the recording data onto the surface to be recorded.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink jet printing apparatus, and more specifically, before or after ejecting ink from an ink ejecting section (hereinafter also referred to as a print head) to form dots on a print medium, The present invention relates to an inkjet printing apparatus and method for ejecting a liquid (hereinafter also referred to as a treatment liquid) for insolubilizing a dye in an ink onto a print medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when printing is performed on a print medium such as so-called plain paper by an ink jet printing method, the image quality of a print image may be deteriorated due to the influence of ink bleeding. There is also a problem that the water resistance of the printed image is insufficient and the storage stability is poor.

As a solution to these problems, for example,
In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 58-128862, a dot of the treatment liquid is formed by ejecting a treatment liquid having an effect of favorably fixing the ink before or after forming the dot by ejecting the ink. , Those dots,
That is, a technique is disclosed in which dots that form an image forming unit (hereinafter referred to as print dots) and processing liquid dots are overlapped. Further, JP-A-64-63185 discloses a technique of forming a print dot by ejecting ink after a compound for insolubilizing a dye in the ink is attached to a print medium. Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open
JP-A-202328 discloses a method of ejecting a treatment liquid for adhering ink favorably and making it water resistant by an inkjet method to adhere it to a print medium prior to the operation of forming print dots, and applying the treatment liquid to a roller. And a method of mixing the ink and the treatment liquid while the ink is ejected from the ejection unit and then adhering the mixture to the print medium to improve the water resistance and the fixability of the ink. Has been done.

[0004]

However, in all of these conventional examples, the treatment liquid is consumed more than necessary in order to adhere the treatment liquid to all the print dot formation positions on the print medium. In addition, particularly in the case of color printing using multicolor inks, there is a possibility that color mixing may occur due to an excessive amount of processing liquid.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to make the treatment liquid for improving the fixability and water resistance of the ink adhere to an optimum position in an appropriate amount so as to maximize the function of the treatment liquid. It is possible to prevent deterioration of image quality due to color mixture and the like.

[0006]

To this end, the present invention provides
An ink ejection unit capable of ejecting ink from a plurality of ejection ports onto a print medium to form ink dots, and a liquid that insolubilizes or aggregates the coloring material in the ink by contacting the ink onto the print medium. An inkjet printing apparatus that performs printing using a liquid ejecting unit that is capable of ejecting and has a plurality of ejecting ports, wherein: Driving means for driving the ink ejecting section and ejection ports for ejecting liquid of the liquid ejecting section are selected according to the amount of ink ejected in a predetermined range based on the ejection data, and the ejection is performed. Liquid discharge control means.

Further, according to the present invention, the ink is ejected from the ink ejecting portion onto the print medium, and a liquid which insolubilizes or aggregates the coloring material in the ink when contacting the ink is ejected from the liquid ejecting portion onto the print medium. An ink jet printing method for ejecting and printing, according to an amount of ink ejected in a predetermined range based on ink ejection data corresponding to each of a plurality of ejection ports of the ink ejecting unit that ejects ink. , The liquid is ejected by selecting a plurality of ejection ports of the liquid ejecting section that ejects the liquid.

In the above, a logical sum operation of the discharge data is performed, the result of the logical sum operation is differentiated, the discharge data and the result of the differentiation are subjected to a product-sum operation, and the result of the product-sum operation is dithered. However, it is possible to cause the liquid ejection unit to perform ejection based on the result of the dither process, or to have each unit for that purpose.

Alternatively, a product-sum operation of the ejection data is performed, the result of the product-sum operation is dithered, and the liquid ejecting section is caused to perform ejection based on the result data of the dither means. It may have means.

Further, in the above, a plurality of the ink ejecting portions may be used corresponding to the inks having different color tones.

Further, in the above, the ink ejecting section has a plurality of thermal energy generators provided to generate thermal energy used for ejecting ink from the plurality of ejection ports. You can

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings with respect to some examples of embodiments.

(First Example) FIG. 1 is a constitutional example of the first embodiment of the present invention in which the present invention is applied to a color ink jet printer.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 111 denotes a head, which is provided with print heads 101, 102, 103 and 104 and a processing liquid head 105 as described later.
Each of the heads 101 to 105 has a recording paper 20 on a surface facing a recording paper 207 as a print medium.
For example, 64 discharge ports are provided in the transport direction of 7. Further, the print heads 101 to 104 and the processing liquid head 105 are respectively provided with an ink liquid passage and a processing liquid liquid passage that communicate with each of the 64 ejection ports. Heads 101-10
An electrothermal converter that generates thermal energy as energy used to eject ink or treatment liquid is formed on the substrate, which is a component of 5, corresponding to each liquid path. The electrothermal converter (ejection heater) generates heat by an electric pulse applied according to print data, thereby causing film boiling in the ink or treatment liquid in the liquid path on the ejection heater, and this film Ink or treatment liquid is ejected from the ejection port as bubbles are generated by boiling. In each of the heads 101 to 105, a common liquid chamber that is in common communication with each of the liquid passages is provided at the end portion on the opposite side of the ejection line, and the ink or treatment liquid stored therein is the liquid of each liquid. The liquid is supplied to the liquid passage that has performed the discharging operation according to the discharging operation from the passage.

The head 111 is mounted on a carriage 202, and the carriage 202 is provided with a pair of guide rails 203 extending parallel to the print surface 207A of the recording paper 207.
Slidably engages with. As a result, the head 111
It is possible to move along the guide rails 203, and with this movement, printing is performed by ejecting ink or processing liquid at the timing described later. That head 11
After the movement of 1, the recording paper 207 is conveyed by a predetermined amount in the direction of the arrow, and the printing operation is performed again. By repeating such an operation, the printing operation is sequentially performed on the recording paper 207.

The recording paper 207 is conveyed by its print surface 2
A pair of conveying rollers 2 arranged above and below 07A, respectively.
This is done by rotating 04 and 205.
Further, a platen 206 for maintaining the flatness of the printed surface 207A is arranged on the back side of the printed surface 207A of the recording paper 207.

The carriage 202 can be moved by, for example, driving a belt (not shown) attached to the carriage 202 by a motor, and the carriage roller 2 can be moved.
The rotation of 04 and 205 is likewise made possible by the rotation of the motor transmitted to them.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a control system in the printer shown in FIG.

In FIG. 2, the CPU 100 appropriately operates the respective parts of the apparatus of this embodiment, including processing for forming print dots and processing liquid dots as described later, based on print data supplied from the host device. The control process and the data process for the execution are executed. The ROM 100A stores programs and other fixed data corresponding to the processing procedure, and the RAM 100B is used as a work area for executing the processing.

The ink or treatment liquid is ejected from the head 111 by the CPU 100 supplying drive data and drive control signals for the electrothermal converter to the head driver 1A based on the print data. Further CPU
100 controls a carriage motor 20 for moving the carriage 2 and a paper feed (PF) motor 50 for rotatably driving the conveying rollers 204 and 205 via motor drivers 20A and 50A, respectively.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the structure of the head 111, in which 101 is a print head for ejecting cyan ink (C), and similarly, 102 is a print head for magenta ink (M) and 103. Is a print head for yellow (Y), and 104 is a print head for black (K). Reference numeral 105 denotes a treatment liquid head for ejecting a treatment liquid for insolubilizing the dye as a color material in the ink. The composition of the ink and the processing liquid will be described later. In the case of a single color printer, for example, only the print head for ejecting black ink and the treatment liquid head 105 may be provided.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are views for explaining the facing relationship between the head 111 and the recording paper 207.
By ejecting each color ink and treatment liquid from the head 111, the head 111 is main-scanned in the direction of arrow A, and the recording paper 207 is fed in the direction of arrow B. To print.
In this example, the processing liquid head 105 is located on the front side in the main scanning direction, and after the processing liquid is ejected from the head 105, the print heads 101, 102, 103 and 1 are printed.
Ink of each color is ejected from 04.
That is, an image is printed by depositing the treatment liquid on the printed surface 207A to form treatment liquid dots and then ejecting ink of each color to form the print dots. Note that, conversely, it is possible to form the print dots after forming the print dots to form the process liquid dots.

Next, the discharge operation of the ink and the treatment liquid will be described. First, the basic concept of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6 together with the manner of forming the treatment liquid dot which is the premise of the present invention. .

Now, assume that there is print data as shown in FIG. This data is formed by the logical sum of print data corresponding to the respective inks of C, M, Y, and K, and the ejection position of the corresponding ink, that is, at least one ink of those inks. The positions of the print dots that should be printed are represented by white circles. This is D1
And The numbers 1 to 8 in FIG. 5 represent print positions in the main scanning direction A, and the symbols a to f represent print positions in the paper feeding direction B.

FIG. 6A is a view for explaining a method of setting a judgment area group such as 11 to 22 in the drawing and a position for ejecting a processing liquid dot with respect to the print data of FIG. Yes, the positions at which the processing liquid dots are ejected are represented by black circles. Further, FIG. 2B shows a determination area corresponding to 2 dots × 2 dots here, and is used to determine whether or not there is data for forming a print dot at a white circle position in the determination area. It is a pattern. Thus, in the printer of FIG. 1, the processing liquid head 105 first faces the recording paper 207 in one main scan in the A direction. Therefore, when the pattern is used, print dot forming data exists at the position of the white circle. When it is determined that the printing liquid D1 is formed, the processing liquid dot (referred to as D2) is formed at the position on the printed surface 207A, and then the printing dot D1 is formed. That is, in FIG. 6A, for example, in the area 11, since the print dot formation data exists at the coordinates (3, c) in FIG. 5, the processing liquid is ejected to the position of the black circle in the area 11, and the processing liquid dot D2. To form. In other words, the configuration is such that approximately 25% of the processing liquid is ejected with respect to the logical sum of the print data corresponding to each of the C, M, Y, and K inks of the print image, and then the print dots are ejected and formed. Has become. In this case, the head 105 for ejecting the processing liquid is the other printing heads 101 to 1
The same amount as that of 04 is used, and the discharge amount of each discharge port is also the same.

The setting of the determination area is not limited to the one corresponding to 2 dots × 2 dots, and the ejection amount of the treatment liquid head can be set within the range in which the effect of one treatment liquid dot D2 is achieved. It is possible to set it arbitrarily.

Next, the treatment liquid for insolubilizing the dye as a color material in the ink can be obtained as follows, for example.

That is, after mixing and dissolving the following components,
Furthermore, after heating and filtering with a membrane filter having a pore size of 0.22 μm (trade name: Fluoropore filter, manufactured by Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd.), the pH value is adjusted to 4.8 with NaOH to obtain a colorless treatment liquid A1. it can.

Here, the component A1 is a low molecular component of a cationic compound stearyltomethylammonium chloride 2.0 parts (trade name: Electrostop QE, manufactured by Kao Corporation) High molecular component of a cationic compound Polyamine sulfone (average molecular weight) 5000) 3.0 parts (trade name: PAS-92, manufactured by Nitto Boseki Co., Ltd.) Thiodiglycol 10 parts Water balance.

Further, the following can be mentioned as preferable examples of the ink which becomes insoluble by mixing with the above-mentioned colorless treatment liquid.

That is, the following components are mixed, and the mixture is heated and filtered with a membrane filter (trade name: Fluoropore filter, manufactured by Sumitomo Electric Industries) having a pore size of 0.22 μm, and then the yellow, magenta, cyan, and black inks Y are used.
1, M1, C1, K1 can be obtained. Where Y1
C. I. Direct Yellow 142 2.0 parts Thioglycol 10 parts Acetiler EH (Kawaken Fine Chemical Co.) 0.05 parts Water balance, M1 component is CI Acid Red-
289; same composition as Y1 except for 2.5 parts, C1
The same composition as Y1 except that the dye was changed to C.I. Acid Blue-9; 2.5 parts, and the component of K1 was changed to C.I. Acid Black-2; 3 parts. Y
It has the same composition as 1.

In the above-described mixing of the colorless treatment liquid and the ink, in this example, the above-mentioned colorless liquid and the ink are mixed at the position on the printed material or at the position where the ink has penetrated, resulting in reaction. In the first step, among the cationic substances contained in the colorless treatment liquid, the low molecular weight component and the water-soluble dye having an anionic group used in the ink associate with each other by ionic interaction, Instantly separates from the solution phase.

Next, as the second step of the reaction, the above-mentioned dye-low molecular weight cationic substance associate is adsorbed by the high-molecular component contained in the colorless treatment liquid, so that the dye produced by the association The size of the agglomerates of the product becomes even larger, making it harder for them to enter into the gaps between the fibers of the material to be printed, and as a result, only the liquid part that has undergone solid-liquid separation will soak into the recording paper, achieving both print quality and fixability. Is achieved. At the same time, the aggregate formed with the cationic substance generated by the mechanism as described above has a large viscosity and does not move with the movement of the liquid medium, so that adjacent ink dots are not formed as in the case of full-color image formation. Even if they are formed of different color inks, they do not mix with each other and bleeding does not occur. Also, the agglomerates are essentially water-insoluble and the formed images have perfect water resistance. Further, it also has an excellent effect that the light fastness of an image formed by the polymer shielding effect is improved.

However, in the embodiment as shown in FIG. 6, the formation position of the treatment liquid dot on the print medium is always fixed at the same position. Thus, for example, the treatment liquid dot forming head 105 and the print dot forming heads 101 to 1
When 04 having the same structure is used, the same treatment liquid ejection element (ejection port, liquid passage, and ejection heater) of the treatment liquid dot forming head 105 is always used,
The elements used are extremely biased. This makes it impossible to take advantage of the fact that the treatment liquid dot forming head and the print dot forming head have the same structure. Further, if the treatment liquid dot forming head 105 has a configuration different from that of the print dot forming heads 101 to 104, it means that a new head is prepared, which is not preferable in terms of the manufacturing process and quality control. This leads to higher costs. Further, since only fixed treatment liquid dots are formed, it becomes extremely difficult to deal with a special treatment liquid ejection mode.

Therefore, in the following, a treatment liquid head having the same structure as that of the image forming print head is used, and a treatment liquid for improving the fixability and water resistance of the ink is provided without causing uneven distribution in the frequency of use of the ejection elements. A first example of the present invention for attaching an appropriate amount to an appropriate position will be described.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of the ejection data processing system in this example, and the processing system is inserted as a component of the control system in FIG. 2, for example, between the CPU 100 and the head driver 1A. be able to.

In the figure, reference numerals 701, 702, 703, and 704 denote ejection data memories for cyan ink, magenta ink, yellow ink, and black ink, respectively, and print heads 101, 102, 103.
At least the ejection data of just before printing 104 and 104 are stored, and they are sequentially read at the timing of printing. Reference numerals 705, 706, 707, and 708 denote head drive circuits corresponding to the print heads 101, 102, 103, and 104, respectively.
The data sent from 1, 702, 703, and 704 is latched, and the ejection heater of the head is driven to eject ink. Reference numeral 709 denotes discharge data memories 701, 702, and 70.
3 and 704, a logical sum circuit that calculates the logical sum of the data sent, 710 is a differentiation processing circuit that differentiates the output data of the logical sum circuit 709, and 711 is the discharge data memory 70.
A product-sum operation circuit for performing a product-sum operation on the data sent from 1, 702, 703, and 704 and the output of the differential processing circuit 711, and a dither processing circuit 712 for comparing the output of the product-sum operation circuit 711.

Reference numeral 713 is a head drive circuit corresponding to the treatment liquid head 105, which latches the data sent from the dither treatment circuit 712 and drives the ejection heater of the head to eject the treatment liquid. 714 is a data controller,
Signals and the like for causing the ejection data memories 701, 702, 703 and 704, the differential processing circuit 710, the sum-of-products operation circuit 711, and the dither processing circuit 712 to be executed in accordance with the movement of the head 111, respectively, are transmitted. To do. Therefore, this data controller 714
May be provided as illustrated, or may be provided as part of the function of the CPU 100.

FIGS. 8A, 8B, 8C and 8D
Are the discharge data memories 701, 702, and 70, respectively.
3 and 704 represent an example of ejection data of cyan ink, magenta ink, yellow ink, and black ink. In these figures, the circles indicate the positions of print dots to be formed by each ink.

Further, FIG. 9 is output data of the logical sum circuit 709 for each color print data of FIG. 8, FIG. 10 is an example of a mask pattern of the Laplacian filter of the differential processing circuit 710, and FIG. 11 is output data of the differential processing circuit 710. FIG. 12 shows examples of results of sum-of-products calculation for ejection data of cyan ink (C), magenta ink (M), yellow ink (Y), and black ink (K). Further, FIG. 13 shows an example of the output data of the product-sum operation circuit 711, FIG. 14 shows an example of the threshold value matrix of the dither processing circuit 712, and FIG. 15 shows the output data of the product-sum operation circuit 711 and the position where the processing liquid is discharged. It was done, ○
The mark represents the discharge of the processing liquid.

Further, FIGS. 8, 9, 11, 12, and 13.
Further, the numbers 1 to 8 in FIG. 15 represent print positions in the main scanning direction A, and the symbols a to f represent print positions in the paper feeding direction B.

By the way, the product-sum operation circuit 711 is assumed to perform the following operation. C, M, Y, and K are ejection data of cyan ink, magenta ink, yellow ink, and black ink, respectively.
When it is represented by it, "1" represents ejection, "0" represents non-ejection, and L is the output data of the differential processing circuit 710, the output of the product-sum calculation circuit = C + M + Y + K + L.

Next, this example will be specifically described with reference to FIGS.

In this example, (A), (B) of FIG.
The ejection data of (C) and (D) is applied to the printed surface 207.
It shall be printed on A.

First, the treatment liquid head 105 is set on the print surface 20.
When a certain position on 7A is reached, the data controller 712 receives a signal from an encoder (not shown) or the like accompanying the movement of the head 111, and the processing liquid head 10 on the surface to be printed.
In order to read the ejection data of each head corresponding to the position 5 from the ejection data memories 701, 702, 703 and 704, an address signal and a read signal are output to each ejection data memory. Next, the data read from each ejection data memory is input to the product-sum calculation circuit 711 and the logical sum circuit 709, respectively. OR circuit 7
09 calculates the logical sum of each discharge data and sends the result to the differential processing circuit 710. The differential processing circuit 710 performs differential processing on the data sent from the logical sum operation circuit 709, and sends this to the product sum operation circuit 711. The product-sum calculation circuit 711 performs a product-sum calculation on the data read from each discharge data memory and the data sent from the differential processing circuit 710,
The result is output to the dither processing circuit 710. The dither processing circuit 712 performs dither processing based on the output of the product-sum operation circuit 711 and the address signal from the data controller 712, and outputs the dither processing result to the head drive circuit 711.
Send to Then, the head drive circuit 711 latches the data sent from the dither processing circuit 710, drives the head based on this, and ejects the processing liquid.

When the above operation is repeatedly processed, the output data of the logical sum circuit 709 becomes that shown in FIG. 9, and the output data of the differential processing circuit 710 becomes that shown in FIG. 11, and the output of the product-sum operation circuit 711. The data is as shown in FIG. Further, the discharge position of the processing liquid is the circled portion shown in FIG.

According to the above-described example, the treatment liquid is ejected according to the sum of the ejected ink amounts, the ejection ports for ejecting the treatment liquid are not extremely biased, and the fixability and water resistance of the ink are maintained. The processing liquid for improving is attached on the surface to be printed in an appropriate amount at an appropriate position according to the print data or the formation state thereof.

(Second Example) In the above, for example, the mask pattern of the differential processing circuit 709 and the calculation contents of the product-sum calculation circuit 711 can be selected appropriately. In the second example, the case where they are changed will be described, but the configuration of the control system and the print pattern to be processed are the same as those shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, respectively.

FIG. 16 shows the output data of the logical sum circuit 709 for each color print pattern of FIG. 8 (similar to FIG. 9), FIG. 17 is the mask pattern of the Laplacian filter of the differentiation processing circuit 710 used in this example, and FIG. 18 is the differentiation. Processing circuit 71
FIG. 19 shows output data of 0, and FIG. 19 shows examples of results of sum-of-products calculation of ejection data for cyan ink, magenta ink, yellow ink, and black ink. Further, FIG. 20 shows an example of output data of the product-sum calculation circuit 711,
21 is an example of a threshold matrix of the dither processing circuit 712 (similar to FIG. 14), and FIG. 22 is a product-sum operation circuit 711.
The output data and the position at which the processing liquid is discharged are indicated by the circles, and the processing liquid is discharged.

The numbers 1 to 8 in FIGS. 16, 18 to 20 and 21 indicate the print positions in the main scanning direction A, and the symbols a to f indicate the print positions in the paper feeding direction B. There is.

The product-sum operation circuit 711 in this example is assumed to perform the following operation. C, M, Y, and K
Ejection data for cyan ink, magenta ink, yellow ink, and black ink, respectively.
Letting "1" represent ejection, "0" represents non-ejection, and L represents output data of the differential processing circuit 710, the output of the product-sum calculation circuit = (2 × C) + M + Y + K + L It

When the same operation as that of the first example is repeatedly processed, the output data of the logical sum circuit 709 becomes that shown in FIG. 16, and the output data of the differential processing circuit 710 becomes as shown in FIG. As shown, the product-sum operation circuit 71
The output data of No. 2 is as shown in FIG. Further, the discharge position of the processing liquid is the circled portion shown in FIG.

According to the example described above, the effect described in the first example, that is, the treatment liquid is ejected according to the sum of the ejected ink amounts, and the ejection ports ejecting the treatment liquid may be extremely biased. The effect is that the treatment liquid for improving the fixability and water resistance of the ink adheres to the print surface in an appropriate amount at an appropriate position according to the print data or its formation state. In addition, this example has an advantage that the treatment liquid is ejected according to each characteristic of the ejected ink.

(Third Example) In the above two examples, the discharge data processing system is provided with a logical sum circuit and a differential processing circuit. Therefore, an appropriate amount of the processing liquid is applied to the isolated dot and the thin line portion. It has the advantage that it can be attached.

However, for example, in the case of printing an image of only characters that do not include isolated dots or fine lines,
These circuits can be omitted.

FIG. 23 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the ejection data processing system used in the third example of the present invention, which does not have the logical sum circuit 709 and the differential processing circuit 710 and the ejection data and processing of each color ink. The difference from the configuration of FIG. 7 is that the sum-of-products calculation is performed on the liquid discharge data as it is. Other parts are the same as those in FIG. 7, and corresponding parts are denoted by the same reference numerals and the description thereof is omitted.

24A, 24B, 24C and 24D show ejection data memories 701 and 70, respectively.
8 shows an example of ejection data of cyan ink, magenta ink, yellow ink, and black ink stored in Nos. 2, 703, and 704, which is substantially shown in FIG.
The same as (A) to (D). Also, in these figures, the circle marks indicate the positions of print dots to be formed by each ink.

FIG. 25 shows an example of the output data of the product-sum operation circuit 711, FIG. 26 shows an example of the threshold matrix of the dither processing circuit 712 (similar to FIG. 14), and FIG. 27 shows the output of the product-sum operation circuit 711. The data and the position at which the processing liquid is discharged are shown, and the circles represent the discharge of the processing liquid.

The numbers 1 to 8 in FIGS. 24, 25 and 27 represent the print positions in the main scanning direction A, and the symbols a to f represent the print positions in the paper feed direction B. Is the same as described above.

By the way, the product-sum operation circuit 711 is assumed to perform the following operation. C, M, Y, and K are ejection data of cyan ink, magenta ink, yellow ink, and black ink, respectively.
When it is represented by it, "1" represents ejection, "0" represents non-ejection, and L is the output data of the differential processing circuit 710, the output of the product-sum calculation circuit = C + M + Y + K + L. The output of the product-sum calculation circuit is a 2-bit number.

Next, this example will be specifically described with reference to FIGS.

In this example, (A), (B) of FIG.
The ejection data of (C) and (D) is applied to the printed surface 207.
It shall be printed on A.

First, the processing liquid head 105 is printed on the printing surface 2.
When it reaches a certain position on 07A, the data controller 712 receives a signal from an encoder (not shown) or the like accompanying the movement of the head 111, and the processing liquid head 10 on the surface to be printed.
In order to read the ejection data of each head corresponding to the position 5 from the ejection data memories 701, 702, 703 and 704, an address signal and a read signal are output to each ejection data memory. Next, the data read from each ejection data memory is input to the product-sum calculation circuit 711. The product-sum calculation circuit 711 performs a product-sum calculation on the data read from each ejection data memory, and outputs the result to the dither processing circuit 710. Dither processing circuit 7
12 performs dither processing based on the output of the product-sum calculation circuit 711 and the address signal from the data controller 714, and sends the dither processing result to the head drive circuit 711. The head drive circuit 711 is the dither processing circuit 7
The data sent from 10 is latched, the head is driven based on this, and the treatment liquid is ejected.

When the above operation is repeatedly processed, the output data of the product-sum calculation circuit 711 becomes that shown in FIG. 25, and the discharge position of the processing liquid becomes the circled portion shown in FIG.

According to the above-described example, the treatment liquid is ejected according to the sum of the ejected ink amounts, the ejection ports for ejecting the treatment liquid are not extremely biased, and the fixability and water resistance of the ink are maintained. The processing liquid for improving is attached on the surface to be printed in an appropriate amount at an appropriate position according to the print data or the formation state thereof.

(Fourth Example) As a fourth example of the embodiment of the present invention, a case where the operation contents of the product-sum operation circuit 711 are changed as in the second example will be described. The structure of the control system and the print pattern to be processed are the same as those shown in FIGS. 23 and 24, respectively.

FIG. 28 shows the output data of the product-sum calculation circuit 711 for each color print pattern of FIG. 24, and FIG. 29 shows the output data of the product-sum calculation circuit 711 and the position where the processing liquid is ejected. The process liquid is discharged.

The numbers 1 to 8 in these figures represent the print positions in the main scanning direction A, and a to f.
The same reference numeral as in the above indicates that the print position in the paper feed direction B is indicated.

The product-sum calculation circuit 711 in this example performs the following calculation. That is, C, M, Y, and K are ejection data of cyan ink, magenta ink, yellow ink, and black ink, respectively,
When each is represented by 1 bit, "1" represents ejection and "0" represents non-ejection, and L is the output data of the differential processing circuit 710, the output of the product-sum calculation circuit = (2 × C) + M + Y + K + L It is represented by. Here, the output of the product-sum calculation circuit is a 3-bit number.

When the same operation as that shown in the third example is repeatedly processed, the output data of the product-sum calculation circuit 712 becomes that shown in FIG. 28, and the discharge position of the processing liquid is shown in FIG. It becomes the circled part shown in.

According to the example shown above, the effect described in the third example, that is, the treatment liquid is ejected according to the sum of the ejected ink amounts, and the ejection ports ejecting the treatment liquid may be extremely biased. The effect is that the treatment liquid for improving the fixability and water resistance of the ink adheres to the print surface in an appropriate amount at an appropriate position according to the print data or its formation state. In addition, this example has an advantage that the treatment liquid is ejected according to each characteristic of the ejected ink.

(Modification) In each of the above examples, the processing system of the ejection data is realized by hardware, but at least a part thereof may be realized by software, and in this case, the processing procedure is dealt with. A program and fixed data such as a required pattern are stored in the ROM 100A shown in FIG.
The PU 100 may execute the procedure.

It is needless to say that, for example, in FIG. 7, the constants of the differential processing circuit and the size of the matrix may be changed depending on the characteristics of the ink, the processing liquid, and the print medium. For example, the size of the matrix of the differential processing circuit may be 1 in the main scanning direction and 3 in the sub scanning direction.

Needless to say, the constants of the product-sum calculation circuit and the dither processing circuit in FIGS. 7 and 23 may be changed depending on the characteristics of the ink, the processing liquid, and the print medium.

Furthermore, in the above-mentioned examples, the dither processing circuit has a size of 2 × 2, but it goes without saying that the size is not limited to that size.

In addition, in the above example, the ink as the printing agent and the treatment liquid are discharged onto the recording paper such as plain paper, but it goes without saying that a cloth or the like can be used as the printing medium. The present invention can be effectively applied as long as it is effective to attach the treatment liquid.

In addition, in each of the above-described embodiments, the present invention is applied to a printer that has a head for printing each color of cyan ink, magenta ink, yellow ink and black ink, and that performs multi-color or full-color printing. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described colors or heads, and the present invention can be effectively applied to any one of the single colors. Further, even if the gradation can be expressed by changing the number of dots to be ejected to one pixel, or the number of ink droplets to be ejected or the composition of the ink to be used, even if an ink or head having different density for one color is used. It goes without saying that the above settings can be appropriately selected according to the above.

Furthermore, it is possible to change the above-mentioned setting and to appropriately weight the data before the logical sum operation or the product sum operation according to the color, composition, etc. of the ink.
Thus, according to the present invention, the treatment liquid is used as print data or its formation so that the ejection ports to be used are not extremely biased in accordance with the amount of ink ejected to one pixel or a predetermined range of area. The treatment liquid ejection control means may take any form as long as the treatment liquid ejection control means adheres to the print surface by an appropriate amount at an appropriate position according to the state. It goes without saying that the configuration is not limited to the literal names of various circuits or means for performing the sum of products operation.

(Others) In the present invention, particularly in the ink jet printing (recording) system, means for generating heat energy as energy used for ejecting ink (for example, an electrothermal converter or a laser beam). ) Is provided, the effect is excellent in a print head and a printer of the type that causes a change in the ink state by the thermal energy. This is because according to such a method, it is possible to achieve higher density and higher definition of recording.

Regarding its typical structure and principle, see, for example, US Pat. No. 4,723,129 and US Pat. No. 4,740.
It is preferable to use the basic principle disclosed in the specification of Japanese Patent No. 796. This method is a so-called on-demand type,
Although it can be applied to any type of continuous type, in particular, in the case of the on-demand type, it can be applied to a sheet holding liquid (ink) or an electrothermal converter arranged corresponding to the liquid path. Applying at least one drive signal corresponding to the recorded information and providing a rapid temperature rise exceeding the nucleate boiling, causing the electrothermal transducer to generate thermal energy, causing film boiling on the heat acting surface of the printhead. This is effective because bubbles can be formed in the liquid (ink) corresponding to this drive signal on a one-to-one basis. Due to the growth and contraction of this bubble, the liquid (ink)
To form at least one droplet. When this drive signal is formed into a pulse shape, the growth and shrinkage of the bubble are performed immediately and appropriately, so that the liquid (ink) having particularly excellent responsiveness can be obtained.
It is more preferable that the discharge can be achieved. As the pulse-shaped drive signal, US Pat. No. 4,463,359,
The one described in the specification of US Pat. No. 4,345,262 is 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.

In addition to the combination of the ejection 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, the structure of the print head is not limited to the above. The present invention also includes a configuration using US Pat. No. 4,558,333 and US Pat. No. 4,459,600, which disclose a configuration in which the heat acting portion is arranged in a bending region. In addition, for multiple electrothermal transducers,
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 59-123670, which discloses a configuration in which a common slit is used as the discharge portion of the electrothermal converter, and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 59-63, which discloses a structure in which an opening for absorbing a pressure wave of thermal energy is associated with the discharge portion. The effects of the present invention are effective even with a configuration based on Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 138461. That is, according to the present invention, recording can be performed reliably and efficiently regardless of the form of the print head.

Further, the present invention can be effectively applied to a full line type print head having a length corresponding to the maximum width of a recording medium which can be printed by the printer. Such a print head may have a configuration that satisfies the length by combining a plurality of print heads, or a configuration as a single print head that is integrally formed.

In addition, even in the case of the serial type as in the above example, the print head fixed to the apparatus main body or the electrical connection with the apparatus main body and the ink from the apparatus main body by being attached to the apparatus main body The present invention is also effective when a replaceable chip type print head that can be supplied or a cartridge type print head in which an ink tank is integrally provided in the print head itself is used.

Further, it is preferable to add a discharge recovery means for the print head, a preliminary auxiliary means, etc. as the constitution of the printer of the present invention because the effects of the present invention can be further stabilized. Specifically, heating is performed on the print head using capping means, cleaning means, pressurizing or suction means, an electrothermal converter, another heating element, or a combination thereof. Pre-heating means for performing the pre-heating and pre-discharging means for performing the discharging other than the recording can be used.

The type or number of print heads to be mounted is, for example, 1 for a single color ink.
In addition to those provided with only a plurality of inks, a plurality of inks may be provided corresponding to a plurality of inks having different recording colors and densities. That is, for example, the printing mode of the printer is not limited to a printing mode of only a mainstream color such as black, but may be any of a print head integrally formed or a combination of a plurality of print heads. The present invention is also very effective for an apparatus provided with at least one of the full-color recording modes by color mixture.

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 from the solid state of the ink 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 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-A-54-56847 or JP-A-60-7
As described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 1260, it is also possible to adopt a form in which the sheet is opposed to the electrothermal converter in a state where it is held as a liquid or solid substance in the concave portion or 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 printer of the present invention can be used as an image output terminal of information processing equipment such as a computer, a copying machine combined with a reader or the like, and a facsimile machine having a transmission / reception function. It may be one that takes

[0088]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the treatment liquid for improving the fixability and water resistance of the ink can be provided without the discharge ports for ejecting the treatment liquid being extremely biased. It is possible to maximize the function of the processing liquid by depositing an appropriate amount and an appropriate amount on the print medium at an appropriate position.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a configuration example of a color ink jet printer to which the present invention is applied as a first example of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a control system of the printer of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration example of the print head of FIG. 1 including a print dot forming head and a treatment liquid dot forming head.

4A and 4B are conceptual diagrams showing a facing relationship between a head and a print medium.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of print data to be printed.

6A and 6B are views for explaining a method of setting a determination region, which is a premise of the present invention, with respect to the print data of FIG. 5, and a position at which a treatment liquid dot is ejected. It is the figure which showed.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of an ejection data processing system used in the first example and the second example of the embodiment of the present invention.

8A, 8B, 8C, and 8D are examples of ejection data of cyan ink, magenta ink, yellow ink, and black ink stored in the ejection data memory of FIG. 7, respectively. FIG.

9 is a diagram showing output data of the logical sum circuit in FIG. 7 for each color print data in FIG.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a mask pattern of a Laplacian filter of the differential processing circuit in the first example.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing output data of the differential processing circuit of the first example.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example result of a product-sum operation of ejection data for cyan ink, magenta ink, yellow ink, and black ink in the first example.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing output data of the product-sum calculation circuit in the first example.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a threshold matrix of the dither processing circuit in the first example.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing the output data of the product-sum calculation circuit and the positions at which the processing liquid is discharged in the first example.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing output data of an OR circuit in the second example.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing a mask of a Laplacian filter of the differential processing circuit in the second example.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing output data of the differential processing circuit in the second example.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing an example result of a product-sum calculation of ejection data for cyan ink, magenta ink, yellow ink, and black ink in the second example.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing output data of the product-sum calculation circuit in the second example.

FIG. 21 is a diagram showing a threshold matrix of the dither processing circuit in the second example.

FIG. 22 is a diagram showing the output data of the product-sum calculation circuit and the position at which the processing liquid is discharged in the second example.

FIG. 23 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of an ejection data processing system used in a third example and a fourth example of the embodiment of the present invention.

24 (A), (B), (C), and (D) are examples of ejection data of cyan ink, magenta ink, yellow ink, and black ink stored in the ejection data memory of FIG. 23, respectively. FIG.

FIG. 25 is a diagram showing output data of the product-sum calculation circuit in the third example.

FIG. 26 is a diagram showing a threshold matrix of the dither processing circuit in the third example.

FIG. 27 is a diagram showing the output data of the product-sum calculation circuit and the position at which the processing liquid is discharged in the third example.

FIG. 28 is a diagram showing output data of the product-sum calculation circuit in the fourth example.

FIG. 29 is a diagram showing the output data of the product-sum calculation circuit and the position at which the processing liquid is discharged in the fourth example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 20 Carriage Motor 50 P.F. Motor 100 CPU 101, 102, 103, 104 Print Head 105 Processing Liquid Head 202 Carriage 203 Guide Rail 204, 205 Conveying Roller 206 Platen 207 Recording Paper (Print Medium) 701-704 Data Memory 705 To 708, 713 head drive circuit 709 logical sum circuit 710 differential processing circuit 711 product sum arithmetic circuit 712 dither processing circuit 714 data controller

Front page continuation (72) Inventor Hideki Tanaka 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc.

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. An ink ejecting portion capable of ejecting ink from a plurality of ejection ports onto a print medium to form ink dots, and a liquid for insolubilizing or aggregating a coloring material in the ink by contact with the ink. An ink jet printing apparatus that performs printing by using a liquid ejection unit having a plurality of ejection ports that can be ejected onto the print medium, and ejects ink corresponding to each of the plurality of ejection ports of the ink ejection unit. A drive unit that drives the ink ejection unit based on the data, and selects an ejection port that ejects the liquid of the liquid ejection unit according to the amount of ink ejected in a predetermined range based on the ejection data. Liquid discharge control means for performing the discharge,
An inkjet printing device characterized by comprising: 2. A plurality of the ink ejecting portions are provided, and the liquid ejection control means, a logical sum computing means for computing a logical sum of ejection data for the plurality of ink ejecting portions, and an output of the logical sum computing means. Differentiating means, a sum-of-products calculating means for performing a sum-of-products operation of the discharge data of the plurality of ink-discharging parts and the output of the differentiating means, and a dither processing means for dithering the outputs of the sum-of-products calculating means. 2. The inkjet printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a liquid ejecting unit driving unit configured to cause the liquid ejecting unit to eject based on an output of the dither processing unit. 3. A plurality of the ink ejection units are provided, and the liquid ejection control unit performs a product-sum operation of ejection data for the plurality of ink ejection units, and dithers the output of the operation unit. The inkjet printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a dither processing unit; and a liquid ejection unit driving unit that causes the liquid ejection unit to perform ejection based on output data of the dither process. 4. The ink jet printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the ink ejecting units are provided corresponding to inks having different color tones. 5. The ink ejecting section has a plurality of thermal energy generators provided to generate thermal energy used for ejecting ink from the plurality of ejection ports. The inkjet printing apparatus according to any one of 1 to 4. 6. A liquid is ejected from an ink ejecting unit onto a print medium, and a liquid that insolubilizes or aggregates the coloring material in the ink when contacted with the ink is ejected from the liquid ejecting unit onto the print medium to perform printing. In the inkjet printing method for performing the method, the liquid is ejected according to the amount of ink ejected in a predetermined range based on ink ejection data corresponding to each of a plurality of ejection ports of the ink ejecting unit that ejects ink. An ink jet printing method, characterized in that a plurality of ejection ports of the liquid ejection section for ejection are selected to eject the liquid. 7. The logical sum operation of the discharge data is performed, the result of the logical sum operation is differentiated, the discharge data and the result of the differential are subjected to a product-sum operation, and the result of the product-sum operation is dithered. The inkjet printing method according to claim 6, wherein the liquid ejecting section is caused to perform ejection based on a result of the dither processing. 8. The product sum calculation of the discharge data, the result of the product sum calculation is dithered, and the liquid discharge section is caused to perform discharge based on the result data of the dither means. 6. The inkjet printing method according to item 6. 9. A plurality of the ink ejecting portions are used corresponding to inks having different color tones.
9. The inkjet printing method according to any one of 8 to 8. 10. The ink ejection unit has a plurality of thermal energy generators provided to generate thermal energy used for ejecting ink from the plurality of ejection ports. 10. The inkjet printing method according to any one of 6 to 9.