JPH10250054A - Recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To always easily correct for a suitable recording position correspondingly even when a recording head is obliquely mounted and its inclination is changed at each mounting. SOLUTION: In the recorder of a constitution for dividing a plurality of heaters 11 corresponding to a plurality of ink discharge ports of a recording head 9 into a plurality of blocks and driving the heaters in a time division manner at each block, it is driven by a selector 93 without dividing when a select signal se11 is effective, splitting when a signal se12 is effective, dividing into three when a signal se13 is effective and dividing into four when a signal se14 is effective. Thus, any of the signals se11 to se14 is validated in response to an inclination of the head 9, and a plurality of ink dot arrays formed by the drive can be inclined in response to the number of divisions and a scanning speed of the head, and hence inclination of the array due to the inclination of the head can be corrected by canceling.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus, and more particularly to a printing apparatus for correcting a printing position shift due to a mounting error of a printing head.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the spread of personal computers and word processors, printers of various recording systems such as an ink jet recording system and a thermal recording system have been used as output devices of such devices. In particular, in recent years, with the increase in processing speed due to improvement in CPU performance, etc., and the increase in capacity and cost of storage devices such as magnetic disk devices, there are many opportunities to process high-resolution images, and recording is also performed on printers. There is a demand for higher resolution, higher definition, and color images.

[0003] Such a higher resolution in a recording apparatus.
As a part of high definition, for example, ink ejection ports of an ink jet recording head are arranged at high density, and ejection timing is further increased.

[0004]

By the way, in a configuration in which the recording head is formed at a high density by increasing the resolution of the recording image, the mounting error of the recording head has a relatively large effect on the recording image. Become. For example, in a device including a plurality of recording heads for full-color recording or the like, if one of the heads is attached to be inclined with respect to the other head, the dots recorded by the inclined head may be replaced by other dots. The dots may be easily overlapped with the dots of the adjacent pixels by the head, and the quality of the recorded image may be significantly reduced. In addition, even when printing is performed using a single print head, an inclination of a certain degree or more is recognized as deterioration of image quality, and particularly in a serial type device, the boundary of each scanning area becomes more conspicuous. There is also.

On the other hand, conventionally, for example, it has been conventionally performed to control the ejection timing and to correct the deviation of the dot forming position due to the mounting error of the recording head.

However, it is relatively difficult to mount the printhead with high accuracy in a recent printing apparatus that allows the user to replace the printhead, and the inclination angle changes every time the printhead is mounted. Therefore, there is a problem that correction for the inclination of the head cannot be easily performed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problem, and an object of the present invention is to easily solve the problem even when the recording head is mounted with inclination and the inclination changes every time the recording head is mounted. It is an object of the present invention to provide a recording apparatus capable of always appropriately correcting a recording position.

[0008]

According to the present invention, there is provided:
In a printing apparatus that performs printing on a recording medium using a recording head in which a plurality of recording elements are arranged, a scanning unit configured to scan the recording head relative to the recording medium, and a plurality of recording elements of the recording head Into several groups,
Division driving means for driving recording elements in a time-division manner for each group during scanning by the scanning means, and an arrangement of a plurality of recording elements in a recording head in a scanning direction by the scanning means by dividing the number of divisions by the division driving means. A division number setting means for setting the number of divisions according to the angle of the direction.

According to the above arrangement, the number of divisions when a plurality of recording elements are driven in a time-division manner for each group is set according to the inclination of the arrangement of the plurality of recording elements in the attached recording head. The inclination of the dot array that can be formed by the plurality of recording elements can be controlled according to the scanning speed of the recording head and the number of divisions, thereby canceling the inclination of the arrangement of the recording elements and canceling the inclination of the dot arrangement. Can be corrected.

[0010]

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

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of an ink jet recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. This apparatus is a so-called bubble having an electrothermal conversion element as a discharge energy generating means. 1 shows an example of a color ink jet recording apparatus using a jet type recording head.

In FIG. 1, a recording medium 1 such as a sheet of paper or a plastic sheet is supported by a pair of conveying rollers 2 and 3 disposed above and below a recording area thereof, and is driven by a sheet feed motor 4. Is conveyed in the direction of arrow A in FIG. Two guide shafts 5 are provided in front of the transport roller 3 in parallel with the transport rollers 3, and the carriage 6 is provided so as to be movable along the guide shafts 5. The carriage motor 7 can be moved in the direction of arrow B in FIG.

An ink jet recording head is detachably mounted on the carriage 6 for each of the four types of ink. That is, a black head 9A, a cyan head 9B, and a black head 9B, which respectively discharge inks of cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (Bk), respectively.
A magenta head 9C and a yellow head 9D are separately and detachably mounted by a mounting mechanism (not shown). Each recording head has 64 ink ejection ports.
Electrothermal conversion elements that are arranged in a predetermined direction at a density of DPI and communicate with these ejection ports are provided in respective ink paths that generate thermal energy used for ejection. When these recording heads 9A to 9D are mounted on the carriage 6, their ejection ports face the recording surface of the recording medium 1 at a predetermined interval (for example, 0.8 mm). The direction is substantially orthogonal to the moving direction.

FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing a longitudinal sectional view of a part of a configuration relating to ink ejection of each of the recording heads 9A to 9D.

In FIG. 2, an electrothermal conversion element (formed of a heating resistor or the like) 11 is formed in an ink path 10A corresponding to each ink ejection port 10, and is driven (electrically energized) to form an ink inside the ink. A bubble (air bubble) 11A is generated by causing a film boiling phenomenon in the air, and the ink is ejected by the pressure of the air bubble to form a flying ink droplet 12. By this ink ejection, ink droplets are deposited on the recording medium 1 and recording is performed with a dot pattern corresponding to the recording data.

Further, each recording head 9 has a switching element 1 for turning on / off the power supply to the electrothermal transducer.
3 and a driving circuit (driver) for driving the driving circuit 3 are provided on a predetermined circuit board of the recording head as described later with reference to FIG.

Referring again to FIG. 1, an engine control circuit (CPU) of the recording apparatus and a ROM, RA
A control unit including M and the like is formed on the substrate 15 and the host device 1
The controller 7 receives a command signal and a data signal (recording information) from the controller 7, and controls driving sources such as various motors and driving of the recording heads 9A to 9D based on the command signal and the data signal.

An operation panel 160 mounted on an outer case (not shown) of the recording apparatus includes an online / offline switching key 16A, a line feed key 16B,
Form feed key 16C, recording mode switching key 1
In addition to the key setting section such as 6D, a plurality of alarm lamps 16
A display unit including a warning lamp such as E and a power lamp 16F is provided.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a control system of the ink jet recording apparatus shown in FIG.

The control system according to the present embodiment comprises a CPU 18 as an engine control circuit, a program memory 19, a working memory 20 and a data memory 21.
M, RAM, and the like, and receives a command signal and a data signal (recording information) from the host device 17 and, based on the command signal and the data source, drives the recording heads 9A to 9D via a drive control circuit 26 together with driving sources such as motors. Drive for ink ejection is controlled.

That is, the CPU 18 controls the output port 29
The carriage motor 7 and the sheet feed motor 4 are controlled by outputting a control signal to the motor driver 31 through the printhead 9, and the printhead 9 via the head drive circuit 26 based on the print information stored in the data memory 21.
Is controlled by controlling the ejection of the ink. A serial signal read from a shift register of each head, which will be described later, is taken in through the contact portion of the carriage 6 and the input port 33.

Inputs via the operation keys 16A to 16D (see FIG. 1) on the operation panel 160 are transmitted to the CPU 18 via the input port 24, and are transmitted to the alarm lamp 16E and the power lamp 16F. Warning lamp 1
6 is supplied with a control signal via the output port 30.

Further, in FIG. 3, a logic drive voltage (for example, 5 V) for operating the control logic circuit and various motor drive voltages (for example, 30 V) are operated by the power supply circuit 25.
V), reset voltage, electrothermal transducer 11 of each recording head
A heat voltage (for example, 25
V), and a backup voltage for protecting the recording head 9 is applied in each corresponding circuit.

In the above configuration, the drive control circuit 26 sends a select signal relating to block division described below to each of the heads 9A to 9D based on a user's selection operation in the host device. May be performed using the operation keys 16A to 16D.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a driving circuit of a recording head mounted on the recording apparatus of this embodiment.

The ejection data Si is serially transferred in synchronization with the clock signal CLKi and is sequentially stored in the shift register 91.
When a number corresponding to the number corresponding to “heater” is stored, it is held in the latch 92 by the latch signal LATCH ^* . Then, each heater 11 is selectively driven according to the ejection data stored in the latch 92.

In this driving, each heater 11 is time-divisionally performed for each block of the number of divisions determined by the selector 93 as described later. That is, the select signal s
The number of blocks to be divided is determined by el1 to sel4,
Time-division block driving is performed by the block enable signals BE1i ^{* to} BE4i ^* .

FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram mainly showing the detailed configuration of the selector 93. Although the number of heaters 11 is 24 in FIG. 5 for simplicity of illustration and description, it is clear from the description that the following description is not limited by the number of heaters.

Referring to FIG. 5, each heater 11 (first, seventh, ninth, thirteenth, seventeenth,
Only the 19th and 24th heaters are shown. Hereinafter, the heater 11 is also referred to as “heater 1, heater 7, point, heater 24” according to the arrangement order. )
Four AND elements 931 to 934 are provided correspondingly. In each heater, the selector signal sel1 is input to the first AND element 931 and the select signal sel2 is input to the second AND element 932. Hereinafter, similarly, select signals sel3 and sel4 are input to the third and fourth AND elements 933 and 934, respectively. On the other hand, the block enable signals BE1i ^{* to} BE4i ^* are input to the AND elements 931 to 934 of each heater as an AND output with the enable signal ENB ^*, and the input mode of each heater is determined by the select signals sel1 to sel4. It is determined according to which of the divided blocks belongs.

With the configuration of the selector 93 described above, when the select signal sel1 is made valid, all the heaters 1 to 24 are simultaneously driven by the block enable signal BE1i ^* . When validating the select signal sel2, the heater 1-24 is divided into two parts, the heater 12 in the block enable signal BE1i ^* are driven in a time heater 13 to 24 is divided by the block enable signal BE2i ^*. When the select signal sel3 is enabled, the heaters 1 to 24 are time-divided, and the heaters 1 to 8 are turned on by the block enable signal BE1i.
At E2i, the heaters 9 to 16 output the block enable signal B
The heaters 17 to 24 are time-divisionally driven at E3i. Further, when an active select signal sel4 heaters 1-24 are divided into four, the heater 6 by the block enable signal BE1i ^* is, the heater 7 to 12 by the block enable signal BE2i ^* is, the block enable signal BE2i ^* Heaters 13-18
However, the heaters 19 to 24 are time-divisionally driven by the block enable signal BE4i ^* .

The above-described block division and block driving will be described in more detail. For example, the select signal sel is supplied to the four AND elements 931 to 934 of the heater 1.
1 to 4 are input to the AND elements 931 to 934, respectively. On the other hand, only the block enable signal BE1i ^* (an AND output of the enable signal ENB, the same applies hereinafter) is input to each of the AND elements 931 to 934. Whichever of sel1 to sel4 is valid, it is driven by the block enable signal BE1. That is, even if each heater is divided into any number, the heater 1 has one heater.
It will belong to the block to be driven second.

On the other hand, for example, in the case of the heater 13, the select signals sel1 to sel4 are similarly output from the AND elements 931 to 93.
4, the block enable signal Be1i ^* is input to the AND element 931, the block enable signal BE2i ^* is input to the AND elements 932 and 933, and the block enable signal BE3i ^* is input to the AND element 934. I do. Thus, when the select signal sel1 is valid, the block enable signal B
Driven by E1i ^* . Also, select signal se
When l2 or sel3 is valid, it is driven by the block enable signal BE2i ^* . That is, when each heater is divided into two or three, the heater 13 belongs to the second block. Further, when the select signal sel4 is valid, the block enable signal B
The heater is driven by E3i ^* , and therefore, when each heater is driven in four parts, it belongs to the third block.

FIG. 6 is a diagram schematically showing a recording result when the number of divisions is determined by the select signals sel1 to sel4 in this embodiment.

As can be seen from the figure, the dot formation position can be shifted between the blocks by moving the head during the driving of each block. In this case, as the number of divisions increases, the dot formation position increases. It is possible to increase the overall inclination of the 24 dots to be obtained. That is, by setting any of the select signals sel1 to sel4 in accordance with the inclination of the ejection port arrangement of the head caused by the mounting error of the head, the inclination is corrected and the dot row actually formed has almost no inclination. Can be something.

The detection of the inclination of the head and the setting of the select signal according to the detection are performed as follows in the case of the present embodiment. With the head attached, set the number of blocks to 1
From block to four blocks are sequentially changed, and test printing is performed for each block number as shown in FIG. Then, regarding the number of blocks with good connection of the vertical lines (three blocks in the example shown in FIG. 12), it is determined that the block has an inclination corresponding to this number of blocks, and a corresponding select signal is set.

(Embodiment 2) If the number of blocks to be divided is increased, the time for driving all the blocks may be longer than the moving speed of the carriage. In this case, the dot formation position becomes larger between the blocks. Will shift. For this reason, conventionally, as shown in FIG. 7, a recording head is mounted in a tilted position, and the landing position can be corrected by matching the movement time per predetermined distance of the carriage movement with the drive interval of the divided blocks. Is being done. The present embodiment is an application of the present invention in such a configuration.

On the other hand, FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining another example of the conventionally known time-division driving, in which a group consisting of 24 heaters divided into six and each of four heaters is sequentially driven in a time-division manner. This shows the dot formation at the time of performing. That is, in the case of the above example, the division method is such that every five heaters are in the same heater group. When the heaters are sequentially driven in the order of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 at a timing obtained by dividing the predetermined time into six, four dot rows having no inclination can be formed. This embodiment shows an example in which the present invention is applied to this configuration.

FIGS. 9 and 10 are diagrams showing details of the head drive circuit and the selector in this circuit, respectively, of the present embodiment.

In the first embodiment, the correspondence between the block enable signal and the select signal and the heater is fixed, but if the correspondence is fixed, the order of driving cannot be set arbitrarily. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 10, the select signal is set in the shift register so that the group to which each heater belongs can be set only by the select signal. Thus, the drive group can be arbitrarily set if the select serial signal sel Si input to the shift register is appropriately determined.

FIG. 11 shows an example in which, in this embodiment, the drive group is divided into five groups and driven in order to correct a dot shift caused by a recording head mounted at an angle.

(Others) It should be noted that the present invention includes a means (for example, an electrothermal converter or a laser beam) for generating thermal energy as energy used for performing ink ejection, particularly in an ink jet recording system. An excellent effect is obtained in a recording head and a recording apparatus of a type in which the state of ink is changed by the thermal energy. This is because according to such a method, it is possible to achieve higher density and higher definition of recording.

The typical configuration and principle are described in, for example, US Pat. Nos. 4,723,129 and 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. By applying at least one drive signal corresponding to the recorded information and providing a rapid temperature rise exceeding nucleate boiling, heat energy is generated in the electrothermal transducer, and film boiling occurs on the heat acting surface of the recording head. Liquid (ink) corresponding to this drive signal on a one-to-one basis.
This is effective because air bubbles inside can be formed. The liquid (ink) is ejected through the ejection opening by the growth and contraction of the bubble to form at least one droplet. When the drive signal is formed into a pulse shape, the growth and shrinkage of the bubble are performed immediately and appropriately, so that the ejection of a liquid (ink) having particularly excellent responsiveness can be achieved, which is more preferable. As the pulse-shaped drive signal, those described in US Pat. Nos. 4,463,359 and 4,345,262 are suitable. Further, if the conditions described in US Pat. No. 4,313,124 relating to the temperature rise rate of the heat acting surface are adopted, more excellent recording can be performed.

As the configuration of the recording head, in addition to the combination of the discharge port, the liquid path, and the electrothermal converter (linear liquid flow path or right-angled liquid flow path) as disclosed in the above-mentioned respective specifications, U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,333 and U.S. Pat. No. 44,558 which disclose a configuration in which a heat acting portion is arranged in a bending region.
A configuration using the specification of Japanese Patent No. 59600 is also included in the present invention. In addition, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 59-123670 discloses a configuration in which a common slit is used as a discharge portion of an electrothermal converter for a plurality of electrothermal converters. The effect of the present invention is effective even if the configuration is based on JP-A-59-138461, which discloses a configuration corresponding to a discharge unit. That is, according to the present invention, recording can be reliably 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 on which a recording apparatus can record. 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 integrally formed recording head.

In addition, even in the case of the serial type as described above, a recording head fixed to the apparatus main body, or an electric connection with the apparatus main body or 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 recording head that can be supplied or a cartridge-type recording head in which an ink tank is provided integrally with the recording head itself is used.

It is preferable to add a recording head ejection recovery unit, a preliminary auxiliary unit, and the like as the configuration of the recording apparatus of the present invention since the effects of the present invention can be further stabilized. If these are specifically mentioned, the recording head is heated using capping means, cleaning means, pressurizing or suction means, an electrothermal transducer, 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 and number of recording heads to be mounted are, for example, not only one provided for a single color ink but also a plurality of inks having different recording colors and densities. A plurality may be provided. That is, for example, the printing mode of the printing apparatus is not limited to a printing mode of only a mainstream color such as black, but may be any of integrally forming a printing head or a combination of a plurality of printing heads. The present invention is also very effective for an apparatus provided with at least one of the recording modes of full color by color mixture.

In addition, in the embodiments of the present invention described above, the ink is described as a liquid. However, an ink which solidifies at room temperature or lower and which softens or liquefies at room temperature may be used. In general, the ink jet method generally controls the temperature of the ink itself within a range of 30 ° C. or more and 70 ° C. or less to control the temperature so that the viscosity of the ink is in a stable ejection range. Sometimes, the ink may be in a liquid state. In addition, in order to positively prevent temperature rise due to thermal energy by using it as energy for changing the state of the ink from a solid state to a liquid state, or to prevent evaporation of the ink, the ink is solidified in a standing state and heated. May be used. In any case, the application of heat energy causes the ink to be liquefied by the application of the heat energy according to the recording signal and the liquid ink to be ejected, or to start solidifying when it reaches the recording medium. The present invention is also applicable to a case where an ink having a property of liquefying for the first time is used. In such a case, the ink
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 form of the ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention is not limited to those used as image output terminals of information processing equipment such as computers, copying apparatuses combined with readers and the like, and facsimile apparatuses having a transmission / reception function. It may take a form.

[0050]

As described above, according to the present invention, the number of divisions when a plurality of recording elements are driven in a time-division manner for each group depends on the inclination of the arrangement of the plurality of recording elements in the attached recording head. Therefore, the inclination of the dot array that can be formed by the plurality of recording elements can be controlled according to the scanning speed of the recording head and the number of divisions, thereby canceling the inclination of the arrangement of the recording elements. Thus, the inclination of the dot arrangement can be corrected.

As a result, the inclination of the dot row due to the inclination of the recording head can be easily corrected.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration of a main part of an inkjet recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing a longitudinal section of a part of the recording head shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a control configuration of the inkjet recording apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a diagram mainly showing a drive circuit of the recording head according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram showing a detailed configuration of a selector shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a recording result according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing another example of the time-division driving by a recording result.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing a recording result when recording is performed with the head tilted in time-division driving.

FIG. 9 is a diagram mainly showing a drive circuit of a recording head according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a circuit diagram showing a detailed configuration of a selector shown in FIG.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a recording result according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a test pattern for detecting a head inclination and setting a select signal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Recording medium 2 Conveying roller 3 Conveying roller 4 Sheet feed motor 5 Guide shaft 6 Carriage 7 Carriage motor 8 Wire 9, 9A, 9B, 9C, 9D Recording head 10 Discharge port 11 Electrothermal converter (heater) 18 CPU 26 Drive Control circuit 91 Shift register 92 Latch 93 Selector 931,932,933,934 AND element 9501,9502,9524 Shift register

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A printing apparatus for printing on a recording medium using a recording head in which a plurality of recording elements are arranged, a scanning unit for causing the recording head to scan relative to the recording medium, and a recording head. Dividing the plurality of printing elements into a plurality of groups, and driving the printing elements in a time-division manner for each group during scanning by the scanning means; and And a division number setting means for setting the number of divisions according to the angle of the arrangement direction of the plurality of recording elements in the recording head with respect to the scanning direction of the recording head. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the division number setting means has a selector for setting the division number based on a select signal corresponding to the division number to be set and an enable signal for enabling the driving for each group. The recording device according to claim 1, wherein 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the division number setting means has a selector for setting a division number for each of the plurality of recording elements by data for setting a group to which the recording element belongs. Recording device. 4. The recording apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the selector has a shift register that stores data for setting the group. 5. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of recording elements of the recording head perform recording by discharging ink. 6. The recording apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the recording element has a thermal energy generating element for generating thermal energy used for ink ejection.